The Classic Guide to Strategy
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Category: Music CD
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Music CD Cover
Performer: John ZornComposer: John Zorn
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1996-04-23
Music Label: Tzadik
Soundtracks:
- Part 1
- Part 2 (Cartoon Music)
- Aoyama Michi
- Enoken
- Katsumi Shigeru
- Kondo Toshinori
- Togawa Jun
- Mori Ikue
Free Music Notes for The Classic Guide to Strategy
Free Music Review: 4 1/2 stars-- fierce intensity.
Hit: 4 Stars
Collecting John Zorn's two 1980's solo reed recordings, "The Classic Guide to Strategy Volumes One & Two" is, like much of Zorn's work, difficult. In the liner notes, Zorn refers to his youthful "speed, precision and intensity" as something that he could never hope to replicate, and this is, by and large, the defining characteristics of these recordings. Performing on (collectively) alto and soprano sax, Eb and Bb clarinet and game calls, the two volumes, recorded in 1983 and 1985, present a staggering display of intense, fierce music.
But this isn't a solo sax record like anyone familiar with the vocabulary has come to expect. It certainly touches on "For Alto" and the like, but by and large it's a typical selection of Zorn's music-- built of small moments, sometimes fierce and aggressive cartoon-like blasts, sometimes suggestive of melodic theme. In many ways, these can be viewed as the quintessential Zorn recordings: it seems everything he's done is built around these notions of small blocks, and pretty much everything he'd touch upon in the two decades since these were recorded are hinted at in here. In particular, these recordings seem to have a lot in common with the string pieces (i.e. "Necromonicon", "Walpurgisnacht") that have been coming out lately.
Having said all this, this is not music for the feint of heart, and even for Zorn, it can be excessively challenging. I think it may have been an error to have put the two recordings on one CD-- Volume One and Two are both around 40 minutes long, and with the CD stretching to 78 minutes, it can be a lot to take in one sitting. Nonetheless, there is little music out there that is as fiercely intense, and in their own way, powerful, as these recordings, and for anyone interested in Zorn's music, this is essential listening.
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