John Zorn's Bladerunner - London 2000 (bootleg)

John Zorn

Digital Release 2013

Self-Released

The following extract/review by John Fordham appeared in The Guardian, July 6, 2000:



When John Zorn, the volcanically productive new-music alchemist, picked up his alto sax at the Barbican this week, the audience braced itself for a ride to the brink of migraine. The American saxophonist and composer had appeared on this stage twice in the previous nine months. But while those occasions featured first chamber music, then a blend of jazz and traditional Jewish music, this time Zorn brought a heavyweight improvising band featuring former Henry Cow guitarist Fred Frith, drummer David Lombardo and bassist Bill Laswell.



Lombardo's sinister tappings heightened expectations at the opening, and sure enough Zorn opened with probably the loudest and longest overblown alto-sax note heard on that stage. The pieces were urgent and succinct, frequently winding up on abrupt crash-stops or circituitous but logical decelerations.



With barely perceptible nods and gestures, Zorn determined who played with whom, and when. While some improv purists might describe this as cheating, the framework kept the audience insured against everything that Zorn and Frith cold hurl at it. Nor was it all white-heat improvising. A scrambled, lopsidedly swinging Frith intro brought Zorn to a spine-tingling sax lament, which ended in a trance-like fluttering of the instrument's pads alone. A whirling, repeated Ornette Coleman-like figure brought an exquisite solo of glinting sounds from Frith.



A barrage of squalling between Frith and Zorn gaveway to an episode of movie soundtrack atmospherics between Laswell and Lombardo. Zorn made a motorbike sound way below the alto's range and Frith detuned to follow him, but then the saxophonist turned to breezy, dancing figures. It was fluid, restless, wild, and rich in contrast. The audience reaction was ecstatic, despite the mugging of its eardrums by Zorn’s ferocious music.

Dave Lombardo

track listing

Disc 1

01. Untitled

02. Untitled

03. Untitled

04. Untitled

05. Untitled

06. Untitled

07. Untitled

08. Untitled

09. Untitled