John Zorn: Filmworks XIV

Likewise, his fourteenth Filmworks release features an acoustic version of his Electric Masada band sans Zorn, performing the soundtrack to the Jewish Documentary Hiding And Seeking.

Part folk, part exotica, the band lands in a playful land of frolic. The film is reported to be a return to the "roots" of a family whose homeland is Poland. Zorn mixes the seemingly nonsequitur instrumentation of classical guitar, Brazilian hand percussion, vibraphone, and wordless vocals into a warm kindred assemblage of quickly familiar tunes.

It’s a film score, so the repetition of themes is the order of the day. Zorn chooses Latin rhythms and the 1950s bachelor pad approach to music. The much ignored (until the last decade) exotica genre is ripe pickings for serious light-comedy soundtrack work. Ribot’s nylon strings weave the simple theme throughout, backed by Downtown drummer Kenny Wollesen’s vibraphone work. It is truly beautiful to hear Jewish folk music mix with the pure acoustic hand percussion of Cyro Baptista and the the wordless vocals of Ganda Suthivarakom.

Yes, this is a beautiful record.

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