Re: Frisell & Naked City

[james rhodes <sharkey@texas.net>]

oh yes indeed,,ive always been partial to "Radio" .the music covers alot of
musical sub-styles,,,Naked City,,are heavy,,,to say the least,,not for the
faint,,,,but i MUST endorse those guys,,,they are hip

saw Bill Frisell play on PBS a couple of nights ago  (probably old news to
most)
"Sessions" ,,,very nice
james







At 11:47 AM 2/18/98 -0700, you wrote:
>>"Zorn Naked City stuff?" Can you be more specific, I am a bit of a 
>Frisell
>>fan, and I'm not familiar with this.....
>>
>Ah yes, Naked City.  I'd love to tell you more, Marshall:
>
>John Zorn:  Alto Sax
>Bill Frisell:  Guitar
>Wayne Horwitz:  Keyboards (Wayne produced some earily Frisell Albums,
>                most notably, IMHO, _Is That You_)
>Fred Firth:  Bass (Quite a guitar inovator himself)
>Joey (is there anything this man can't do) Barron:  Drums
>Y. Eye:  Vocals
>
>A good starting place is the first album, aptly named _Naked City_.  This
>is a good overview of what this band did.  Cut and paste, at time
>"cartoonish", short improvisitions.  Zorn was heavily influnced by
>Japaneese S&M films at the time and some of that leaks through.  This 
>music
>spans a number of styles, from straight-ahead jazz, to punk, country 
>swing,
>and film noir music.  (Usually in the same tune)
>
>This is unlike anything you've ever heard Frisell play on.
>
>Other albums include:
>
>_Torture Garden_ (very short pieces, very punkish)
>_Radio_
>_Absenth_ (nearly ambient, Laswellish sounding)
>_Grand Guignol_ (long group improv, 5 classical pieces- Ives, Scriabin,
Lassus,
>                Debussy, Messaien) and most of the material from Torture
Garden
>_Heretic_ (Music for a French Erotic film, featuring smaller subgroups of 
>the
>                ensemble)
>_Leng T'che_ (A Japan only release; fairly ambient w/ short bursts of
madness.
>                The inspiration for this piece was an old Japaneese form 
>of
>                execution--(Leng T'che translates to English as "100
pieces"))
>_Black Box_ (A recent re-release of _Torture Garden_ and _Leng T'che_
together
>                in one box, with the original artwork reproduced in the
booklet,
>                not on the cover, so as not to offend record store 
>customers)
>
>Make no mistake, many people hate this stuff.  It took me a few years to
>get to were I could really appricaiate it, and I still wouldn't listen to
>most of it for pure pleasure, though it is quite stimulating and forces 
>the
>audience to explore a different set of very intense emotions with which
>most other music can't or won't deal.  _Naked City_ (the album) is fairly
>easy to find at larger stores like Tower filed under Zorn in the Jazz
>section.  Do check this one out first.  If you like it you will probably
>like the others, if not, you WILL hate the others.
>
>Happy listening,
>
>Doug Tapia
>
>
>
>
>