Search - John Zorn :: John Zorn: FilmWorks XV - Protocols of Zion

A beautiful, intimate masterpiece

wombat18 | Missoula, MT USA | 03/23/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is truly a wonderful, sensitive piece of music that is performed with nuance and care. It's a small group of musicians this time, but the sense of space and rambling adds much to the personal nature of this work. The improvisations and musical journeys are not indulgent, rather respectful and enjoyable.



Zorn features on the electic piano, creating somewhat of a dreamy groove that is then augmented by the percussion work of Cyro Baptista (perhaps the best known Brazilian percussionist) and the bass/oud work of Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz. In many places, it is the percussive rhythm that carries the otherwise wandering groove. Together it is hypnotic and ambient, with a haunting, sometimes gloomy, Middle Eastern feel.



It is rapidly becoming one of my favorite Zorn pieces."

Very enjoyable but lightweight

Q | my office | 10/04/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This soundtrack reminds of Zorn's THE GIFT, which by the way is also highly recomended. There are some nice bass and percussion grooves over which Zorn improvises melodically on electric piano. There are some hints of the Jewish melodies he uses for his Masada projects. The melodies are very enjoyable, as are the improvisations. The songs are relatively short, around 4-5 minutes each, and there is minimal interaction between the players. Zorn's piano playing is the center of attention, but dig the excellent bass-percussion grooves. I don't think this disc fully merits some of the rave reviews I've read, but I'm not sorry I bought it."

Hypnotic soundtrack.

Michael Stack | North Chelmsford, MA USA | 03/29/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"It could be that my expectations were for something else, but I largely did not find this soundtrack to be fulfilling. It could be that it didn't cover much new ground, and John Zorn is one who always covers new ground, or it could be the keyboard style, I'm not sure.



The album features Zorn playing keyboards only, largely with an electric organ sound-- almost all of his playing is single note lines. The difference between his keys playing and his sax playing is, in my mind in terms of expressiveness. I find that he does an excellent job setting mood, but I don't *feel* the music from his playing. In that regard, I will take the time to compliment the extraordinarily sensitive playing of bassist Shamir Blumenkrantz, who has gotten his head way into this music and really does dig in. Also along on this one is percussionist Cyro Baptista.



Largely, the music is variations on a Masada-esque theme-- again, Zorn sticks mostly to single note lines on the keyboard, so the record feels like the Masada material. In terms of tempo and mood, its similar to some of the more hypnotic pieces on "Filmworks XIV", but that piece covered more ground and had a somewhat more intriguing instrumentation.



Admittedly, it could be me-- when comparisons to Ives or Mingus at the piano were made, I had expectations of this that really involved a much more piano-like sound and feel, but Zorn uses the key as he would a saxaphone.



Having stated that, the music on here is enjoyable, and it certainly is evocative, and I don't know that had Zorn played his saxaphone he would have been able to get this sort of hypnotic, groove oriented feel to his playing. Overall though, I didn't find enough variety on this one to hold my attention throughout, it blended into the background somewhat."