Review: John Zorn - "In Search of the Miraculous"

ZORN, John, “In Search of the Miraculous”, Tzadik Records, New York, NY, USA, 2010

I’m a bit of a cover-judger. I see something that looks interesting and I give it a try. In some cases I’m disappointed to discover that the exterior announcement of some article is not at all what I was led to believe; in other instances, I’m happy that I made the leap of faith. I wish it was so in this case.

My boss is a big fan of Jazz and Improvisational music, and especially of Avant-garde composers. Consequently, we have a lot of this kind of music in the store. In the interests of developing my product knowledge, I rustled through this department to see what I could find: what I discovered was a lot of John Zorn albums.

Zorn is a modern American composer based in New York, whose range of expertise covers a vast area. He composes, arranges and performs music, produces records, plays saxophone amongst other instruments and has his own recording label. His work covers a bewildering array of styles from hardcore punk to modern classical, extreme metal to klezmer, and everything in between. Having done my research, I thought, there’s a better than average chance that I’m going to like this guy.

I looked at the range of discs to see which one took my fancy: the choice was also wide, with compositions inspired by ornithology, by Jewish history, mythology...I was spoiled for choice. I settled finally on this disc because it looked interesting and the subject, as outlined on the cover, seemed right up my alley:

“Inspired by esoteric spiritual practices, white magic, ritual, traditional myths and ancient legends, Zorn brings together a lifelong interest in mysticism with powerful lyricism to fashion this dynamic and evocative series of Odes for the New Millennium. Featuring the landmark composition The Magus, one of Zorn’s most exciting new works, the music takes on a scintillating new edge – dramatic, hypnotic and mysterious...In Search of the Miraculous is ecstatic music touching on the sublime!”

Well.

I’m guessing that Zorn’s interest in esoteric spiritual practices was fulfilled by lots of reading in cafes, and that the only thing he encountered while doing so that fell under the headings “powerful”, “hypnotic”, or “mysterious”, was the coffee. Three tracks in, I began to wonder when the music would get “sublime” and stop sounding like one of those cheap CDs that cafes play to try and trick you into thinking you’re at a table on a sidewalk in Montmartre.

That sounds a bit harsh, I know. Actually, the quality of the music is very high and the performances are excellent; but it’s like sleeping between high thread-count Egyptian cotton sheets, or walking barefoot on expensive carpeting: pleasant, but forgettable.

I resisted my first impression very strongly, assuming that I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind, or that I wasn’t paying sufficient attention. I sat down and focussed: by track four I was dying for a coffee, and perhaps a biscotti to go with it.

I tried another disc from the selection at work: “Nosferatu”; surely that would dish the goods. There are some fairly blood-curdling screams on that disc accompanied by some discordant jangling stuff, but it all just sounds like there’s some misuse of the deep-fryer going on out in the kitchen behind the cafe: cafe ambience with the odd abattoir sample. Maybe for when Count Orlock pops in for an evening ristretto? Needless to say, it wasn’t the sort of thing that would attract customers into the store, so I finished with it fairly sharpish.

Back to “Miraculous”: after experiencing Zorn’s vampire-inspired composition, I was disappointed that this disc didn’t even have any screaming to punctuate the pleasantry. It just tootles on with vibraphone and funky bass and fills the soundscape in a comforting, waft-y fashion: kind of like the aural equivalent of a decaf latte. Something that Eliphas Levi would maybe slurp at while sharpening his athame.

I was thinking that this could be one of those great roleplaying soundtracks that would help to set the mood of the forthcoming session; something to give the players pause before taking those steps down into the basement. As it is, I might put it on when my group’s characters are sitting around in a cafe somewhere, after busting up a coven of cultists. Maybe.

We have another of his discs at work, a piece entitled “Kristallnacht”; I shudder to think...

So, all in all, I’ve discovered that it’s amazing what you can achieve when you have your own record label and take a hands-on approach to the CD cover designs and informative blurbs: the world becomes your own private elevator. One-and-a-half tentacled horrors singing “The Girl from Ipanema”...

*****