Search - John Zorn :: Harras

Good Stuff

Frank Dean Lehouillier | Buffalo, NY United States | 05/06/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm not really a fan of John Zorn. His hairpin mood shifts that characterize the Naked City stuff and the screeching torture music of Painkiller both put me off. On the other hand I adore Derek Bailey and William Parker is a spectacular bassist. You should here some of his work in the Die Like a Dog trio with Peter Brotzmann and Hamid Drake. Thus, I thought it was worth the risk of enduring Zorn's horn. I was pleasantly surprised to find that when stripped of his compositional interests in pain and cartoons Zorn is a very astute and lyrical improvisor. Don't make any mistake here. This is free improvization and hence bound to sound like noise to anyone not familiar with its conventions, but Zorn manages to sound not only palatable to me but pleasant and I intend to look into more of his albums to see if there is more work like this. Bailey's playing fits in between perfectly and this group works together. He does have a solo section at the end of the first track, which is the best part of the album. This is probably the best work of a group this size I have heard him in, much better than "Arcana: The Last Wave" for example, not to mention "Sign of 4". I heartily recommend this."