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John Zorn: O'o
The fundamental elements include the "jungle sounds" of Martin Denny, a tropical midnight soundscape of birdcalls and insect percussion, coupled with lushly resonant instrumentation. There's lounge a-plenty, but it covers terrain from surf guitar instrumentals to the Latin jazz of Cal Tjader and Vince Guaraldi to some sudden soulful piano that might recall Horace Silver or Sonny Clark. The clarity of Zorn's musical vision combines with the recovered elements to create sometimes startling emotional connections (that the CD is named for an extinct song bird is telling as is the booklet of bird drawings), as in the profoundly beautiful opening of "Akialoa," with its suggestion of John Coltrane modality and Morricone soundscape. The individual performances are at a consistently high level, but it would be impossible not to single out Ribot for his uncanny range of guitar timbres, remarkable not simply for their variety but their intensity and unfailing aptness.
While The Dreamers might have seemed like a brilliantly executed one-off, O'o testifies not just to Zorn's absorption in the new style, but to the band's commitment as well. You might go some distance to find contemporary music with more precisely meaningful detail or dedication to nuance.
Track Listing
Miller's Crake; Akialoa; Po'o'uli ; Little Bittern; Mysterious Starling; Laughing Owl; Archaeopteryx; Solitaire; Piopio; The Zapata Rail; Kakawahie; Magdalena.
Personnel
John Zorn
saxophone, altoCyro Baptista: percussion; Joey Baron: drums; Trevor Dunn: bass; Marc Ribot: guitar; Jamie Saft: piano, organ; Kenny Wollesen: vibraphone.
Album information
Title: O'o | Year Released: 2010 | Record Label: Tzadik
Comments
About John Zorn
Instrument: Saxophone, alto
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