Search - Derek Bailey, John Zorn, George Lewis :: Yankees

Superb!

Jose Luis Benlliure | Mexico City | 05/03/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Excellent collective improvisation by Derek Bailey,guitars,George Lewis,trombone,John Zorn,altro and soprano saxophones,clarinets, and game calls.Imagine a baseball team playing with no manager, but all of the players knowing what to do by a wonderful intuition and knowledge of the game, translate that into music (if you can) and you'll have this splendid music.tThe 3 musicians are masters and magicians in their field. Highly recomended for open minded and adventurous listeners. J.L."

More Bailey than Zorn...

Michael Stack | North Chelmsford, MA USA | 07/28/2005

(2 out of 5 stars)

"John Zorn is a musician whose force of personality is stamped clearly on anything he touches-- any project Zorn becomes involved in is more a part of his idiom than anyone else.



But there's some early recordings where this isn't the case, where Zorn was still developing his vocabulary and his sounds, where he was still the "game piece" guy rather than anything else. "Yankees", recorded in 1982, is just one of those pieces-- still playng an assortmetn of reeds and game calls and before any of his classic albums were completed, its little wonder that Zorn's personality is somewhat subsumed beneath the elder Derek Bailey.



This trio (Bailey on guitars, Zorn on reeds, George Lewis on trombone) exists largely inside Bailey idiom-- the scratching, scraping, and meandering and vast use of space that Bailey's music has at its best is apparent here, and the three play improvisations in these regards. At its best, its evokes imagery more powerful than one would believe possible-- "City City City" FEELS like a walk down a city block, but at its worst, its feels like nothing ("On Golden Pond").



I suspect Bailey fans would be more interested in this than zorn fans-- for myself, Derek Bailey's music appeals to me more from a theoretical than an actual standpoint. Its a decent listen, but I doubt I'll ever pull it out of my racks more than once or twice a year."