John Zorn — Alhambra Love Songs

“Alhambra Love Songs” finds Mr Zorn in mellow, elegant and often effortless melodic mood as he conjures up a mixture of easy listening, felt to upbeat jazziness and more filmatic pieces . The album features the trio of: Rob Burger on Piano, Greg Cohen on bass and Ben Perowsky on drums.

Each track here is Zorn’s sonic tribute to San Francisco or Bay Area artists, actor, director or musician- so over the eleven tracks Zorn pays tribute to the follow diverse and distinctive people: Vince Guaraldi, Harry Smith, Mo Siegel, Clint Eastwood, Willie Winant, Paul Canales, Lyn Hejinian, Mike Patton, David Lynch, Terry Riley and Elissa Guest- with each track nicely taking on facets of each persons work & personality. A few of my favourite moments here come in the form of: the dramatic, pushing yet often melodic delicate “Pacifica” which is centred around Cohen’s rich and felt bass lines and  Burger’s emotional piano weaves. The almost sea shanty folky melody meets minimalism of “Larkspur” which finds Burger unfold a complex, yet emotional taunt & feeling piece for piano only.  Or the title track which is a great up-beat mixture of flamboyant and showy jazz piano rolls, Masada like counter melody lines and Cohen swinging, pronounced weaving ‘n’ bobbing bass lines.

The albums another highly rewarding trip into Zorn more popular, melodic and often mellow side. With Burger, Cohen and Perowsky performing Zorn’s composition with great flare, passion and atmosphere; making even the more complex and weaving moments sound effortless and breath-taking.