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Post by yaroyaroyaro on Jun 20, 2017 5:54:53 GMT -5
Oh, hi everybody, or anybody =)
Dunno why i missed this forum earlier, but i finally got here during search of Zorn's interviews. I listen to JZ since 2008 (having favorites from Locus Solus to Femina etc.) or so, though at some point lost focus. Now i look back at Tzadik and see all those releases i haven't checked. Any recommendations? To be clear, last albums i got were Interzone and Satyr's Play, so weren't seriously exploting new releases since 2011 or so. I got some impression from amazon reviews, but would like to read your impressions as well.
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Post by sarahv on Jun 20, 2017 20:51:23 GMT -5
Welcome :-)
Funny, for most musicians/composers a question of "did he do anything notable in the last 5-6 years" would be a pretty basic question, but Zorn has released like 50 albums and it's overwhelming to even think about! I haven't heard anywhere near all of them (I'll go to all the live shows but I don't buy all the albums)... but some favorites were The Concealed, Adramelech, and Buer. Off the top of my head.
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Post by yaroyaroyaro on Jun 21, 2017 7:12:40 GMT -5
Thanks
I have some friends who gave up on Zorn lately. Either changed their music preferences or stopped getting excited from new releases - they tell me how JZ nowodays is all about making copies of what he already did (e.g. milking Dreamers stuff, Dunn/Patton/Baron stuff etc.)
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Post by sarahv on Jun 21, 2017 12:46:35 GMT -5
Well, like I said, I still go to all the live shows. The Bagatelles (which haven't been recorded/released) have spawned some great performances. I don't buy that many albums in general (maybe a couple a month) so I am a little more picky about what I do buy. I'm excited about his release this month with the Julian Lage/Gyan Riley duet.
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Post by yaroyaroyaro on Jun 21, 2017 14:06:21 GMT -5
Sometimes it reminds me that when Zorn was in my country i didnt know a thing about him... nevermind =)
The Bagatelles? It's name for superband variation or...
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Post by sarahv on Jun 21, 2017 15:21:51 GMT -5
The Bagatelles are a big collection of music he wrote (like the Masada books, but more atonal/modern classical sounding) but they haven't been recorded. He did a lot of performances in NYC and a few in Europe so far. He did one Bagatelles concert every week at the Stone for a year, plus a week at the Village Vanguard, and a bunch of marathons in Europe and NYC.
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Post by yaroyaroyaro on Jun 21, 2017 16:05:41 GMT -5
Ah! Thanks for explanation. His "classical" (for chamber orchestra?) and "atonal" (i like Shoenberg and others in general, but Zorn's variations are different) stuff are kind of hard to get into for me unless i m really dedicated, but that's interesting. Sometimes i think about things which would be interesting to see in "John Zorn apply to this!" version, but they never gonna happen... Like [modular] synth vs Zorn live duo, that would be curious for me. Ikue Mori's use of MAX/msp is close to that, but... analogue modular synths is more like instrument to perform live rather than software on laptop (though thats debatable and proven incorrect, but to each taste), as it was seen with Morton Subotnick, Suzanne Ciani and others and others. But guess nobody in Zorn-related circles is into such artificial things (modulars existed since 60s and recently got boost in popularity though), but i m still imaginating. Jamie Saft's use of guitar pedals with Rhodes in Electric Masada came close though in terms of sound regions. If i recall, in Parachute Years game pieces there was somebody with synthesizer but cant say for that anything. Maybe the problem with such intrument is that you have to pre-prepare it unless you are really virtuoso to improvise fully on the fly. While with acoustic instruments real time is limitless. www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyxvcOP2-howww.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhtar8FlgzUyoutu.be/sEccL3xFWYw (short footage showcasing polyrhythmicy, so its not disco or ambient only) And in combo with acoustic instruments on contrast www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYkP5rdnwLE (now this is somehow closer to what Ikue Mori x Zorn/Others do as its almost sound manipulation rather than base) www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbalkXAqwtc (sounds to much disco but just an example of realtime perfomance with drums) Sorry for such derail (which slightly leads to techical sound/music related things), but why not... |
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Post by Sordel on Jul 25, 2017 10:41:34 GMT -5
I have some friends who gave up on Zorn lately. Either changed their music preferences or stopped getting excited from new releases - they tell me how JZ nowodays is all about making copies of what he already did (e.g. milking Dreamers stuff, Dunn/Patton/Baron stuff etc.) I know what your friends mean, but to be honest they're wrong. Yes, he does a lot that sounds like other stuff he's done, but then he's done more than most and it's a very wide stylistic range to work within. He also does things that sounds like nothing else: the organ improvisations are new; the choral works are a new emphasis. You can't turn around and reasonably stay "oh, he's stuck in a rut because you can't count new stuff he does that I personally don't want to hear" ... his entire career has been full of work that people didn't want to hear!  The Book of Angels has been an especially rich expansion of Zorn's palette; true, that's down to the arrangers, but not to be underestimated. And you can't just say "oh yeah, Masada, but we've heard that" because the only thing common to Masada compositions is the scales: by that standard Stravinsky's Symphony In C is the same as any pop song in the same key. The problem is surely that many people are drawn to Zorn by the thrill of novelty, and as that turns to familiarity the excitement dissipates. I must say: I've spent far less time with volume four of The Classic Guide To Strategy because it's very easy to dismiss as "more of the same". The failing there is probably more in the listener than in Zorn: I don't think that he is anywhere near as interested in being "novel" per se as we are in hearing something new. |
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