John Zorn/George Lewis/Bill Frisell: News for Lulu

For all his reputation as a musical enfant terrible in the late 1980s, master saxophonist and composer John Zorn could create some pretty accessible and impressive recordings.  His 1988 album News for Lulu with compatriots George Lewis and Bill Frisell and released on the Swiss Hat Hut label is perhaps the best example of this.

Just as importantly, this amazing album is a heartfelt and deeply respectful tribute to some of the most talented, but not as well known jazz composers of so-called post-bop period of the 1950s.  Zorn, a master saxophonist with an impeccable pedigree in jazz (best epitomized by his staggering Masada quartet) built News for Lulu on compositions from Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley, Sonny Clark and Freddie Redd.

These are not the familiar names of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and other notables, but here Zorn gives them and their work their full due. As Peter Watrous points out in his liner notes essay, the musicians employ "hard bop as a base from which to build their own ideas on improvisation, arrangements, melodies."

Additionally, by eschewing a rhythm section of bass, drums and piano, Zorn and his partners "expose the way the tunes work, making them even more intense, and taking the project out of the constrains of the jazz tradition."  Art Lange, in his remarks, observed that the trio could play these tunes largely as conceived "or break free into contrapuntal abandon, energized every step of the way by bebop's enthusiastic buoyancy and an added jolt of 80s adventurism."

Zorn added his own reflections, emphasizing the telepathic interplay he shared with trombonist Lewis and Frisell, whose wider exposure as a guitarist was yet to come.  He highlighted the former's "beautiful sense of harmony and counterpoint," while the latter "kills you with one of his tasty country funk lines" and his "tonal blend."

As challenging as Zorn's music could be in these early years, News for Lulu is a paramount example of how he could experiment and yet provide a clear listenable experience.

Julius Hemphill Big Band

Another sadly underappreciated but masterful jazz performer and composer, Julius Hemphill (1938-1995), released his only big band recording for the Elektra Musician label in 1988 and this was an early jazz album purchased by this blogger a few years afterward.

Hemphill was known to this listener because of his work with the World Saxophone Quartet, another great jazz group that will be covered here subsequently.  But, he also had some amazing solo recordings from the early 1970s until his death and some of these will be featured here later, as well.

In the meantime, Julius Hemphill Big Band is a fabulous recording of complex, adventurous and intricately-performed arrangements that develop their own styles but one can hear echoes of influences, perhaps, from Ellington to Mingus and others.

"At Harmony" begins with a building buzz of sound from the ensemble and then the rumbling drums of Ronnie Burrage before giving a platform for fine solos from trombonist Frank Lacy, Marty Ehrlich on soprano sax, John Stubblefield's tenor, Burrage's drums and the leader's own alto playing.

This piece is followed by the contemplative, moody and gorgeous "Leora" in which Hemphill is the featured soloist and performs with great complexity, depth, feeling and beauty.

"C/Saw" is a fleet, uptempo tune with more great interplay between the band and Hemphill's alto solo followed by a nice electric guitar workout from Jack Wilkins, Lacy's trombone and a solid solo from tenor sax player John Purcell.  Jerome Harris's bass and Burrage's drums hold down the rhythm quite well and Harris's work has a strong funk quality to this listener.

"For Billie," named clearly for the legendary singer Billie Holiday, is a stately, lithe ballad and Hemphill's alto introduces a gorgeous theme with his crystal clear, highly controlled, and highly evocative feeling being well suported by a variety of horns and the rhythm section.  His performance here is just outstanding and is followed by Wilkins's guitar and the unusual pairing of French horns, played by Vincent Chancey and John Clark.

The eight-part, eighteen and a half minute, sprawling epic, "Drunk on God," often gets criticized because of K. Curtis Lyle's abstract, psychedelic and obtuse poetic musings that talk about peyote in Mexico, a character named Nago, the jazz center of Kansas City, and a lot else.  He published Drunk on God & From Out of Nowhere, among his several volumes of work, in 1975.  This blogger has never been bothered by Lyle's contribution and Hemphill's arrangment comes across as seamless with the text, as well as experimental and yet accessible. 

Instrumentally, the work begins quietly and slowly builds with some notable percussion effects by Gordon Gottlieb standing out in the opening sections.  Then, the band begins to raise the intensity and the complex interactions of the horns in particular are striking in the fourth section, "Motion as the Terrible Language of the Future," and Harris's strong bass work anchors the ensemble's work here.

About halfway through the band lays low for a few seconds and then launches into another fantastic section of wild and wonderful sounds for about a minute and then halts while Lyle recites the opening lines of "Gates of Kansas City."  Burrage and Gottlieb lay down some cool rhythms, Hemphill comes out with some striking lines and the ensemble returns just after the 12-minute mark with a toe-tapping groove behind more Hemphill blowing.

A little over a minute later is a nice, laidback trumpet solo from David Hines and at about 14:30 there is a typically soaring, eruptive and distinctive guitar solo from Bill Frisell, who recorded a number of interesting albums for the Elektra Musician/Nonesuch label in the late 80s and into the 90s, while the band backs him up with a bluesy groove.

Then at about 16 minutes, an R & B like pattern, very catchy, is laid down and the band begins to move with Lyle into the grand finale, building into a richly complex crescendo and a phenomenal release of tension.  This piece is exhilirating and inspiring, whether or not Lyle's highly stylized poetry and recitation is tangential or not.

This great album concludes with "Bordertown," a nine and a half minute ballad with another fine, wistful and fragile melody by Hemphill, who also plays a somewhat rare solo on soprano saxophone.  After a few minutes, the pace picks up and has a strong blues feel with another fine solo from Frisell.  After some more inspired ensemble playing behind Frisell's keening and wailing, the move abruptly shifts back to the relaxed theme and brings the proceedings to an end with a bit of a funky groove and more excellent horn interplay behind Hemphill's slightly abrasive soprano before coming to an abrupt close.

It's too bad Hemphill didn't get to make more big band records; too bad he died just a few years later, after being incapacitated by heart surgery and diabeted; too bad he didn't get more recognition.  He did have devoted students, however, most notably Ehrlich, who carried on Hemphill's work in performances and on recordings, and the distinctive and highly experimental altoist Tim Berne, who will be covered here soon.

Julius Hemphill Big Band is not easy to find, but is well worth the effort and funds if hearing inventive and expressive modern big band music is appealing.  It is a superior work by a great, if little known, artist.

Julius Hemphill Big Band (Elektra Musician, 1988)

1.   At Harmony  8:55
2.  Leora  5:53
3.  C/Saw  8:19
4.  For Billie  8:24
5.  Drunk on God  18:38
6.  Bordertown  9:27

Naked City: Torture Garden

When, in 1990, the effort by YHB to explore a wide variety of music (or, at least organized, sound) was launched, one of the earliest explorations into some of the more extreme forms of music/sound came with the Torture Garden album by Naked City.  And, at the time, it didn't get too much more extreme than this, though newer forms of music/sound make this stuff seem pretty quaint nowadays!

This project was spearheaded by the fantastically iconoclastic and polymusical (is that an actual word?) figures in modern music, alto saxophonist John Zorn, who had become infatuated with grindcore and other extreme forms of music/sound as exemplified by such groups as Godflesh and Napalm Death (whose original drummer, Mick Harris, will be featured here later, including in the remarkable trio PainKiller with Zorn and uber-bassist/producer Bill Laswell.)

Whereas many could argue that the musicianship in hardcore/grindcore/whatever-you-want-to-call-it-core may not be technically proficient (as if that matters,) the lineup that Zorn pulled together in Naked City is phenomenal.  Guitarist Bill Frisell, bassist Fred Frith, keyboardist Wayne Horvitz and drummer Joey Baron are all masters of their respective instruments, though never heard in a context like this.  Joining the esteemed ensemble is vocalist Yamatsuka (Yamantaka) Eye of the legendary Japanese punk collective, The Boredoms.

In under 26 minutes, Naked City blasts, rips, tears, wails, careens, caterwauls, screams, and plows through forty-two "hardcore miniatures" that run the gamut of sounds that use or mirror music boxes, cartoon soundtracks, dub, jazz, country (yes, country), metal, and many other types/genres/varieties, often in the same forty-two second or eight-second tune.  Tempos abruptly shift, Eye's screams come and go, the tinkling of the piano's ivories give way to Frisell's wailing guitar, Baron's pounding drums segue into a dub beat, Frith's bass goes from fuzzy to jazzy to something more guttural and menacing, and Horvitz goes from that piano to an organ in seconds.  If anything, the only constants are Eye's "vocal" gesticulations and Zorn's wailing sax (though, on occasion, he peels off a calmer riff or two.)

As to the tunes, there are many notable examples of the Naked City aesthetic to bring up.  "Speedfreaks", in all of 52 seconds, is a cut-up mish-mash of every conceivable style Zorn can cram into it, but it's also fascinating, which can be said for the 48-second "The Prestidigitator" as well.  "NY. Flat Top Box" has a country shuffle feel for much of the piece, before some hardcore blasts interrupt, and then comes a sweet finale back to the earlier feel. "Hammerhead" is a 12-second blast of unalloyed noise.  The last several seconds of "The Blade" is Eye bellowing the most hair-raising scream perhaps on record (and, hence, gives the tune its title?] 

"Igneous Ejaculation" [yes, you have to accept some of these titles as part of the gallows humor that drives much of this music; if not, you're merely disgusted, but, then you'd have to see the cover art, too] is a prime example of Baron's spectacular drumming, which actually is well displayed throughout the album, such as in "Ujaku."  "Fuck the Facts" and "Blooduster" are more powerful bursts of propulsive and unforgiving hardcore. 

"Jazz Snob Eat Shit" along with "Perfume of a Critic's Burning Flesh" and "New Jersey Scum Swamp" [which might have foretold a certain reality show now entering its last season?] give some idea of the "crude humor" that informs much of the record.  "Shangkuan Ling-Feng" starts with a snippet of a martial-arts film before launching into a killer riff, some sax/vocal screaming, a brief organ interlude, and then that riff followed by more sax/vocal bellowing and Eye's guttural grunt to conclude.  Finally, there is the fitting album closer, "Gob of Spit," which is to be taken literally, courtesy of Eye's true-to-life vocalization.

As to some of the more hardcore elements of this record, having heard Hüsker Dü's Zen Arcade six or so years before probably helped calibrate the ears somewhat for Torture Garden, although there is nothing that can really prepare anyone for the experience of hearing this record.  There are other Naked City albums that move into more darkly ambient (Absinthe), slowly grinding (Leng T'che) and schizophrenic (Radio and the first, eponymous album) territory, as well as a pretty impressive live album that skillfully recreates the abrupt stylistic and tempo changes on most of the records.

Torture Garden, though, has a strange, special place all its own.  For all of its musical mayhem, a listener would have to bring a particularly twisted (yet, healthy) sense of humor to the experience.  Otherwise, it might only take a minute, or thirty-eight seconds past that, or forty-five seconds further, to become completely disgusted and turned off by the spectacle.

And, this doesn't even deal with the cover art, consisting of one very colorful cartoonish artwork that is too graphic to even describe adequately in words, and a half-dozen or so photographs of intricate bondage scenes involving Japanese women.  The art work led Zorn's then-label, the respected Nonesuch, to balk at using the images, upon which Zorn left the label for the smaller Shimmy Disc. 

There's a recollection that Asian-American activists raised objections at the appearance of the cover (YHB had an early cassette version of the album), which led to its revamping.  Ironically, the album cover design, illustration, and photographs were done by Japanese and Japan has a particularly notable subculture of hyper-violent cartoon art and sexually-themed photography, such as bondage, that has been going on for years. 

It might be worth noting that this was not that long after the Robert Mapplethorpe exhibit dustup in Cincinnati and Tipper Gore and the PMRC's "crusade" against filth and depravity in the music industry, so the shock value and absurdist humor of some forms of music, including the determinedly downtown version found in Torture Garden, don't translate well to lots and lots of people.  Even if the musicians on this record are all masterful and came up with a record that is fun, fascinating, rocking, trippy, bewildering, and, yeah, kooky.

Then again, that seems to describe much of John Zorn's oeuvre over a long and unpredictable career.  Which is why he's so cool.