This next bit of late Septembering is all about someone I can't believe I've never covered here.
His birthday was at the beginning of this month, but I saved this for today because this show is turning 30 years old.
I am lucky enough to have seen him play with several of his groups, including the one in this concert twice, and right around the time this was taped too.
It's great that guys like him still exist, now that exploratory jazz stuff is further from the mainstream than Tuvan throatsinging covers of Bulgarian Folk tunes.
He is still going stronger than ever, too. He'll probably form five different bands the day he dies, sometime in the 2100s.
There's something totally uncorruptable and pure about his music, no matter the context... and he's got way more than a few across a 40+ year (and counting) career.
You get the sense that John Zorn is someone who's never played a note or written a composition he didn't want to play or write.
Which in today's shitscape -- where no one does anything unless it's maximally profitable, with all the risk socialized and the reward privatized -- is all kinds of admirable, if you ask me.
He turned 66 on September 2nd, but (like I mentioned) this show -- featuring perhaps his most star-studded and devastating band -- was taped exactly 30 years ago today in France so I decided to do it now instead of earlier.
John Zorn's Naked City
Festival Musica 1989
Ancienne Laiterie Centrale
Strasbourg, France
9.28.1989
01 FM intro
02 Batman
03 Graveyard Shift
04 FM announcement
05 Latin Quarter
06 James Bond Theme
07 Reanimator
08 The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
09 FM announcement
10 Rapid Shave
11 Snagglepuss
12 Lonely Woman
13 Surfer Girl
14 Church Key
15 John Zorn announcement
16 Igneous Ejaculation
17 Igneous Ejaculation II
18 John Zorn announcement
19 Jazz Snob Eat Shit
20 John Zorn announcement
21 Chinatown
22 A Shot In the Dark
23 You Will Be Shot
24 John Zorn announcement
25 The Cincinnati Kid
26 Saigon Pickup
27 John Zorn announcement
28 N.Y. Flat Top Box
29 band introductions
30 FM outro
Total time: 1:03:23
John Zorn - alto saxophone
Wayne Horvitz - keyboards
Bill Frisell - guitar
Fred Frith - bass
Joey Baron - drums
digital FM capture of a 2015 France Musique rebroadcast
384 MB FLAC/September 2019 archive link
This one has all the Naked City features: the apocalyptic outbursts in the middle of serene film tunes, the cartoon versions of various soundtracks from TV, all of it.
I left the France Musique announcer in because he doesn't blab over the music and keeps his commentary short and tout suite.
I'll be right back in 24 hours or so with yet more grist for your Satanic mills, and maybe even again in 48 for additional thrills if you eat your veggies.
Today, however, is the day to appreciate the alto madman we know as John Zorn, so do get next to this incendiary hour of Naked City-scape in the Maestro's honor... or you might end up on the next NC album cover!--J.
