John Zorn — Filmworks XI, XII and XIII: 2002

The Filmworks series showed the many aspects of John Zorn’s work over the last 10 years. He obviously was commissioned to do quite a few this year given the fact that he releases three volumes for this year alone within a month.

These volumes show, again, the friendlier side of Zorn, who gained notoriety as a ‘musical terrorist’ with projects like Naked City, Painkiller and his ‘game pieces’, attacking the listeners with a relentless crossfire of earpiercing and mindmelting musical constructs (or improvs). Since his exploration of his Jewish roots and focus on composing (as opposed to performing) he seems to enter a more melodical, even romantic field. His compositions are, as ever, very diverse: from the harsh electronics on Songs From The Hermetic Theatre to more lyrical, but still atonal, pieces on Madness, Love & Mysticism. The days of fast-paced style-changes, modelled after Carl Stalling’s Looney Tunes work, are over for a long time.

The documentary ‘Secret Lives’ is about the Jewish children in The Second Worldwar that were saved by non-Jews, without their parents. The rescuers took high risks themselves with hiding these children and both the kids as well as their rescuers were affected deeply. Like on Filmworks XVIII (about Jewish fugitives in Shanghai) and Filmworks IX (about homosexuality in Jewish circles) the content of the movies made Zorn an obvious choice given his ‘Masada Book’ and the recordings from that collection of compositions that often served a temporary score while working on the movie. This disc features the Masada String Trio that you might now from the Issachar disc from The Circle Maker. The sound is rather different on this album though. Less improvisation and some overdubs make Secret Lives more cinematic, orchestrated and atmospheric. Also added are vocals by Vanessa Saft on Yesoma and Darkly. Her husband (I guess) Jamie Saft jumps in on piano on Amistice Swing. Also four new Masada pieces pop up.

Volume XII contains three scores. The first was written for a dance documentary about ‘PS122’, a venue in New York. Three pieces of it show a side of Zorn that he hasn’t explored much, although it has been a very early influence. He decided to react against it with his well-known ‘maximalist’ approach. Although Redbird and Duras show that he hadn’t forgotten about it these pieces seem to be a rediscovery. Opener Vocal Phase, sung by Jennifer Charles, is a hypnotic example of this. The score also include jazzy Wurlitzer playing by Jamie Saft and a glass harmonica soundscape played by Zorn. The second score, Shaolin Ulysses is reminiscent of the Port Of Last Resort soundtrack (on volume VIII) I mentioned earlier. Min Xiao-Fen reappears with her pi’pa but in a different environment, ranging from ‘Norteña’ to Ennio Morricone, but all with a Chinese touch (mainly because of the typical pi’pa sound). The movie is about Shaolin monks coming to, and living in, the United States and the music represents the combination of the various encountered cultures. Marc Ribot’s guitar and Min’s pi’pa alternate leads and trade solo’s over the gentle rhythm section of Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle a.o.), Roberto Rodriguez and Filmworks regular Cyro Baptista. This is definitely part of the friendliest and most 'easy-listenable' collection of Zorn’s works. The concluding score for ‘Family Found’ are four different versions of a theme on cello (Erik Friedlander) and vocals (Jennifer Charles).

The title of Volume XIII, Invitation To A Suicide, could make you suspect the brutal side of Zorn will re-emerge. Well, it’s an absurdist, black comedy and again, the music is generally very easily digestable. The story of the movie is about a man who’s trying to raise money to cure his father from a deadly disease by selling tickets to his own suicide. The opening (and recurring) theme makes me think about the themes Goblin wrote for movies like Profondo Rosso. It might also be that it's a shared influence of, also Italian, composers Nino Rota and Ennio Morricone (what’s up with all these Italians?). The execution is different though: Ribot (guitar) and Friedlander (cello) return on this volume and it gives the music a pleasant familiarity. New are the accordion virtuosity of Rob Burger and the extensive use of Kenny Wollesen on vibes and marimba (besides that, he plays drums). Trevor Dunn plays bass again. The music is mostly jazzy (like the Suicide Waltz) and sometimes atmospherical (Moon Moods). In Lonely Are The Dumb Ribot returns to his clumsy and blunt guitarstyle that we know from his days with Tom Waits.

All three volumes are very nice and entertaining and if you liked The Gift and/or the preceding three volumes, I’m pretty sure you’ll like these. A few years back I was hoping for more focus on Ribot and I surely got that. Maybe he should ask Bill Frisell for his next soundtrack (not that I’m getting bored with Ribot).