Customer Reviews

The Big Gundown: John Zorn Plays The Music Of Ennio Morricone

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let me start by saying that what the person who posted the review from august 1998 is not correct. john zorn has done so-called "game pieces" that are based on very strict rules: e.g. "cobra", "pool" and "archery". however, on this tribute he does NOT use that approach. onto my thoughts of this cd then: if you like morricones music and are looking for new and adventurous interpretations - buy it! in the liner notes morricone himself states that he usually objects to the idea of his music being re-interpreted and/or re-recorded by other artists, but that he was pleasantly surprised with zorn's achievements, and that he actually even liked them. which speaks for itself, i'd say. enough said.

I reviewed the rerelease of this album, and suggest you buy the remastered version for the clarity of the remastering job. Not that the original was bad--far from it. It's a fantastic recording--weird and wonderful.

This is one of my favorite Zorn albums, though it's a challenging listen on some of the pieces.

Great record by John Zorn,more for Zorn's fans than Morricone's. Zorn manages to create an inventive and extraodinary blend of modern and film music. We know Zorn has always been a fan of film music specially toon music, but this time he went beyond all expectations. This is a jewel in any record serious collection and I don't mean this music lacks sense of humour! If you can't find this CD, I strongly recomend to get YANKEES in Charly Records reissue. J.L.

Playing around with sound (snippets of different kinds of music, ambient noise, etc.) within a framework of rules (supposedly based on game theory in math). Composed improvisation (someone in the liner notes of the London Jazz Composers Orchestra's Ode says Zorn says if he knows a musician, he knows what he will improvise in a given situation). Ennio Moriccone composed the music for the old Clint Eastwood westerns. Fun stuff.