Customer Reviews

Naked City

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

this is the album that really got me seriously into jazz. I'll wait a minute to let you gasp....

Now, let me explain myself. I bought Naked City in the summer before my freshman year in High School. My father, a former professional, now part-time jazz trombonist played jazz around the house 24/7 and I enjoyed it but didn't really listen to it that much myself. I went to several summer camps focused on jazz improv and I tended to be pretty decent without really listening to the music. The music that I did listen to was hardcore punk rock. The kind where the more bands you know that no one else did, the cooler you are (ever heard of Demon System 13, INDK...yeah thats right). I was a lot more open-minded than others who listen to that music but I still didn't care too much about other music.

Then I listened to Naked City and I was blown away. Someone had bridged the gap between jazz in all of its forms and hardcore. This was some scary s---! All of a sudden I started buying jazz cds like crazy and I have never looked back since. Thanks John for making me an open-minded listener and allowing me to be an individual!

John Zorn hails from New York and has been one of the most interesting and exciting figures in contemporary music for years. He appears to be of limitless talent, acquiring quite a reputation for his wild eclecticism. That eclecticism is wildly abundant on this fine, fine album, as Zorn and Company rage thru the music of Ornette Coleman, Henry Mancini, Ennio Morricone, John Barry, and of course Mr. Zorn himself. They blaze through jazz, swing, blues, free jazz, noise, rock, thrash, and surf- often in the same song. This is great music for today's attention-span addled human. In fact, I think this would actually be a great album for youngsters with an interest in jazz to listen to. It is fast moving, often changing, and definitely never boring. I haven't listened to this CD for awhile (until today), and I forgot how enthralling it is.
`Naked City' was my first John Zorn album and it remains my favorite (along with his Occult masterpiece I.A.O.). This wonderful disc starts out with `Batman'; Zorn's uptempo envisioning of what Batman's theme should sound like- and it totally kicks ass. This is followed by Morricone's `The Sicilian Clan'. Zorn's saxophone sounds great on this track (and I usually HATE the saxophone). Next up is `You Will Be Shot', a nifty Zorn original that changes just about every ten seconds; touching on rock, noise/thrash, and blues/swing. I could go on and on; fruitlessly attempting to describe track after track. That however is beginning to seem increasingly pointless as I listen to this spectacular album. It sounds so cliché, but one must truly listen to this album for themselves to have any kind of understanding for how much ass it kicks.
One of the things that Mr. Zorn seems to have a knack for, is assembling the right band for the right project (much in the same way Miles Davis did). The band that he put together for `Naked City' was absolutely perfect, and up to the task of tackling these diverse, high energy arrangements. Bill Frisell on guitar, Wayne Horvitz on keys, Fred Firth on bass, and Joey Baron on skins were the perfect partners in crime for this wicked creation. I would've loved to catch this amazing band live.
This is a hell of an album. I own LOTS of music, and this is by far one of the most diverse releases I have. Not many bands could pull off the ridiculous changes present here. On paper, this should be a mess. However thanks to John Zorn's vision and skill (and that of his band mates) this works wonderfully- way better than it should. If you are interested in Zorn and have yet to delve into his intimidating and massive catalogue, this is a great place to start. If you are a fan of Zorn, you undoubtedly have this excellent and timeless release.

I took a chance on buying this CD, as I only heard about it from a friend, and had heard no music from it. It ended up being truly one of the most worthwhile CD purchases I've made. My idea of music was so much more limited before this CD. I liked only a few of the tracks, and really didn't appreciate the grindcore tracks except for their over the top quality. But after a lot of listening it redefined music for me. It is truly refreshing and unlike anything I've heard. GREAT STEPPING STONE IF YOU WANT TO GET INTO SOMETHING DIFFERENT! I highly recommend.

-Chris

This is a shock to the system the first time you hear it, then at some point the humor in the music becomes more evident. Zorn has an interesting mind, and unlike the jazz dullards who exhibit technique for its own sake, has something to say and a unique, powerful way of saying it. I think that this album is hilarious and bracing, the way that having an avalanche fall on you is bracing. Not for your elderly maiden aunt as background music--this one demands your full attention, and jazz needs more music like that these days.

Well, at least my view of music. A genre-busting album that doesn't sit still, showing the influences of hardcore punk, jazz, free improvisation, country and the cartoon music of Carl Stalling. Maybe the kitchen sink as well. What other CD boasts covers of both Ornette Coleman's Lonely Woman and the James Bond theme? I must have seen this currently defunct band 20 times and they never disappointed, always playing something new. Like music from the film "The List of Adrian Messenger. Who else but Zorn would find this stuff? It's time for a reunion tour. I'm going through withdrawal.

There really isn't much you can say but totally unpredictable and absolutely ingenius from start to finish. One of those rare records that keeps you on the edge of your seat and you find yourself saying about every other minute "How the hell did he think of that?". The ideas are bountiful and over the top brilliant. Every record collection should have at least one copy of Can Tago Mago, Captain Beefheart Trout Mask Replica and Naked City by John Zorn. Amazing stuff.

As I write this, its been 16 years since these recordings were originally released, and remarkably, they still sound 10 years ahead of their time. One of many high peaks in John Zorn's career, "Naked City" (both this album and the project) stand, to my ears, pretty much on their own.

Zorn assembled a monster band, featuring himself on alto sax, Bill Frisell on guitar, Fred Frith on bass, Wayne Horvitz on keys, and Joey Baron on drums. This group is joined on several tracks by vocalist Yamataka Eye as they explore, well everything, musically. The accomplishments on this record are stunning. Tackling material by Morriconi, Henry Mancini, Ornette Coleman, Jerry Goldsmith, John Barry ("The James Bond Theme") and a series of Zorn originals, the band moves genres effortlessly.

The opener on the album pretty much sets the stage for the rest of the record-- "Batman" begins with a crazed guitar figure, then moves underneath a wailing sax to a driving rhythm and backbeat, maintains this sort of pseudo-swing feel but structures itself such that it occasionally collapses into hard core noise. The band proves themselves capable of extraordinary beauty ("The Sicilian Clan") and noise (the entire middle of the album-- all hardcore songs under a minute featuring Eye), sometimes all in the same song ("Snagglepuss"). I once heard someone say, "if you don't like Naked City, wait ten seconds, it'll sound completely different", and its really quite accurate. Whats stunning is that zorn manages such that swing fits next to hardcore fits next to country & western, then slinks into "The James Bond Theme".

When I first heard this recording, I'd never heard anything like it before, and I never expect that I will hear anything like it-- this music requires a certain level of fearlessness (and probably a healthy dose of bravado) combined with virtuoso performers who are willing (and capable) of expressing themselves in any form. But really, in order to pull this off, both the composer and the musicians have to know when to let loose and have fun-- when serious is too serious, and John Zorn does know this.

Probably one of the most important things to remember about this album is that it really bears repeated listens-- there's a lot here, I've pretty much played it nonstop since I first heard it, and I'm still finding new and exciting moments in it. But I know people who didn't "get it" at first, and eventually, it sunk in and made sense. Give it a try or two or three, skip anything that really bothers you and come back to it later, this is not easy music, but it is brilliant and highly rewarding.

If you are a fan of unique, creative, improvised, or just downright interesting music, you owe it to yourself to check out this recording.

I guess sooner or later you have to deal with this guy John Zorn if you're a fan of adventurous and challenging music. The problem is where to begin. Among his hundred or so in-print releases, where is the best entryway into the Zorn musical circus? My guess would be to start here. Just drop the needle on "Snagglepuss" and you get an nice four-minute overview of Zorn's channel-surfing aesthetic: free jazz, thrash metal, film music, punk, lounge, twang (name your genre) all reside together to be called upon at a split-second notice, all executed flawlessly with in-your-face production value. Is it art? Sure, in a recycled-pop-culture kind of way, similar to 1960's visual artists like Warhol and Lichtenstein. Is it music? Er, yes, but it's calculated to the point of being desensitizing (like porn, a Zorn obsession). Being a true New York artist, his idea is not just to push musical boundries but also to make us question what music really is in our modern times and how it should be packaged. Do I recommend it? Absolutely--whether we want to admit it or not, we all occasionally like being the "M" in "S&M". It certainly rocks; it just doesn't happen to be terribly sincere. Of course, it doesn't try to be; you have to admire a guy who can name his poison and then (make you) drink it.

This album is one of the Holy Grails of modern music. In this album, Zorn destroys the walls separating genre with a giant saxophone sledgehammer, with his cohorts, Horowitz, Frith, Frisell, Baron, and Japanoize pioneer Yamatsuka Eye, gleefully helping him. If you truly want to have your musical ideals challenged and your ear expanded, I wholeheartedly recommend this album. It takes you farther than you thought possible.

Well here is the album Mr. Bungle used as the prototype for their debut release, but don't expect to hear any glamour rock vocals or middle school restroom humor. The songs with vocals are by far the best. Mix blast beats, insane screams and vocal noise, with schizophrenic sax solos and you have Naked City...or just pure noise. Weird and awesome