Queen of All Ears

Lounge Lizards | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 16, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Strange & Beautiful
• ASIN: B000007NPT
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #139,954 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

John Lurie's Lounge Lizards have been around for almost 20 years, and their collective sound has improved over time. The latest edition of Lounge Lizards is a nine-piece ensemble of top-notch musicians. While featuring able-bodied soloists like Michael Blake on tenor, Steve Bernstein on trumpet, Dave Tronzo on guitar, and John's brother Evan on keyboards, the Lizards remain a musical vehicle for John Lurie's noirish, angular muse. Although inspired by jazz's instrumental nature, most of this music was thoroughly worked out in advance. Led by John Lurie's sardonic alto and soprano saxophone playing, the band embraces West African music, expositions from New Orleans, and interludes of wicked gamelan. Simultaneously sarcastic and spiritual, this is an unorthodox album that those who aren't jazz fans should be able to enjoy. --Mitch Myers

Option

This new work is startling evidence of how far-reaching [John] Lurie’s ideas have become. Some tunes, like "The Birds Near Her House," are based on pulsing African rhythms, while "Scary Children" and "Monsters over Bangkok" are lurching pieces of cartoon haunted house music right out of Raymond Scott.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scary Children., November 26, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Queen of All Ears (Audio CD)

6 stars! Listen to the remarkable "Yak" and "Monsters Over Bangkok". Rarely have I enjoyed an album so much the first listen; and as with any great record, it improves each time. "Queen of All Ears" takes elements of Mingus, Coltrane, Zappa, David Byrne, Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman, and David Murray [to name a few] and combines it all, into something as refreshing to me as an anisette & water at lunchtime in late July. [After all, there's plenty of dreck out there. This one, however, is a keeper.] If you like this album I might suggest: the Sun Ra Arkestra's "Jazz in Silhouette"; Medeski Martin & Wood's "It's a Jungle in Here"; Zappa's "Uncle Meat"; and Ornette Coleman's "The Shape of Jazz to Come". The Lounge Lizards take what's best about all these albums and make music that's chaotic, logical, funny, spontaneous, controlled, serious, and intelligent. It's full of contradictions, quirks, and irregularities, but there's also beauty, art, and understanding. Isn't that how life is? I recently saw them in concert here in NYC and it was quite a ride. Mr. Lurie has commanding stage presence and a great sense of the audience. What's better, he's a wacky guy. [You won't find better song titles.] As far as my humble opinion goes, this band is one of the few who carry the torch of the future of jazz, & the future of music. People are finding out about it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Jazzy Joyful Jagged, April 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Queen of All Ears (Audio CD)

This is the way jazz should sound. If you like this, you'll love Lurie's Voice of Chunk. The compositions are fascinating and Lurie knows how to swing. Listen to the soundtracks that he did for Get Shorty and Excess Baggage.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why isn't there a 6th star for albums like this?, October 18, 1998

By 

Riley A. Vann (Morristown, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Queen of All Ears (Audio CD)

Wow. That's all I can. Wow. John Lurie and the musicians that he has surrounded himself with are visionaries taking jazz places that Mingus and Davis never knew existed but were always aiming for. Featuring perhaps the funniest and funnest song I've ever heard in "Yak," this has become my favorite album, of any genre. I don't know if the Lounge Lizards can top this, but I look forward to there next recording to see. Wow.