John Zorn’s musical seed is very fertile. While at Webster College in St. Louis in 1973, he made his first saxophone recordings and has since tapped a seemingly inexhaustible well of inspiration. The legendary composer has exhaled into more than four hundred recordings during his career and shows no signs of slowing down.
This year alone he has released Alhambra Love Songs and O’o. The latter, named for an extinct Hawaiian bird, is the third installment in Zorn’s accessible series of surf/lounge records that touch on some world music elements, but never stray too far into the searing dissonance and paroxysmal chaos that Zorn has become renown for.
Newest Tzadik Release
O’o continues down the road that The Gift and The Dreamers carved out so well. Zorn’s latest dip into the world of exotica features a familiar super group of collaborators many of whose names are ubiquitous on his Tzadik liner notes. The addition of Kenny Wollessen on vibes worked so well on the commercially successful, Dreamers, that he returns and blends in perfectly with the album’s dreamy lilt.
Surf Rock and Exotica
While Zorn has inspired countless musicians and vaulted many into prominence by mere association, his own influences seep out of his records as well. The moribund Archaeopteryx, bows its head cautiously to Ennio Morricone. Marc Ribot’s sinister bluesy guitar creeps through an eerie ghost town while Joey Baron’s cymbals blow tumbleweeds through the dusty street and Jamie Saft’s discordant piano sounds like it’s being tickled by a specter.
Laughing Owl sounds like a theme from Final Fantasy and as it splashes through the surf, strange harmonies develop between the vibraphone, organ and guitar. Little Bittern is a Ribot rock assault with Saft, Baron and Trevor Dunn steering beneath a furious guitar solo. Piopio has all the elements of an Electric Masada piece and Cyro Baptista and Baron’s shuffling groove never loses its galloping eastern pace.
Chippy Chin Artwork
Like The Gift and The Dreamers, O’o is not only exciting as it aurally unravels, but as always, Zorn’s packaging is interesting. The disc comes with a thick sketchbook by Heung Heung "Chippy" Chin. Her pencil illustrations of several dozen esoterically-named birds along with the colorful Asian-tinged inlay and cover provide the listener a complementary kaleidoscope of strange shapes and colors to absorb while succumbing to the swirling stimulus of sound within.
Personnel: Marc Ribot: guitar; Jamie Saft; piano, organ; Kenny Wollesen: vibraphone; Trevor Dunn: bass; Joey Baron: Drums; Cyro Baptista: percussion
Track Listing: Miller's Crake; Akialoa; Po'o'uli; Little Bittern; Mysterious Starling; Laughing Owl; Archaeopteryx; Solitaire; Piopio; The Zapata Rail; Kakawahie; Magdalena
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