Big Gundown

EDITORIAL REVIEWS
This is a record that has fresh, good and intelligent ideas. It is realization on a high level, a work done by a maestro with great science-fantasy and creativity. At times my works have been varied from but it doesn t change anything because the pieces are still recognizable. My ideas have been realized not in a passive manner, but in an active manner which has recreated and re-invented what I have done previously for films. Many people have done versions of my pieces, but no one has done them like this. Ennio Morricone.
Boasting an incredible all-star lineup of musical masters, The Big Gundown is THE landmark album that first introduced Zorn's wild musical universe to a larger audience, influencing a whole new generation of creative musicians. Newly remastered, this 15th anniversary edition includes six remarkable bonus tracks recorded especially for this definitive edition now available exclusively from Tzadik.
Accompanying this classic pairing of Morricone s brilliant originals and Zorn's exciting arrangements is a fabulous 32 page full color booklet filled with informative notes, movie stills, posters and more.

REVIEW
On The Big Gundown, John Zorn's "major label debut" of 1986, the unique and distinctive music of Ennio Morricone proved perfect fodder for the multifarious artist. The unforgettable scores Morricone created for Sergio Leone's "Spaghetti Westerns," with their odd musical voicings, devices, and juxtapositions, are only one small facet of the composer's overall oeuvre, which ranges from lush orchestral tapestries to straightforward songcraft.

Zorn, a cagey veteran of the catch-as-catch-can guerrilla aesthetics of Downtown art, had been set loose in a high-tech recording studio for the first time a few years prior, and the experience had a profound effect on his working methods. The Big Gundown marked the first album-length appearance of his "file card" composing method. Zorn compiled his various thoughts regarding his subject on index cards, and then arranged those into a working roadmap for his band of improvisers, which here included Bill Frisell, Anthony Coleman, Wayne Horvitz, Bobby Previte, Christian Marclay, and many others.

The result is an explosive set of reinterpretations in which Zorn seizes upon elements of the original pieces, fragments them, rearranges them, and intensifies them exponentially. From the dramatic orchestral chimes, thunderous timpani, and startling transitions of the title track to the sexy, breathy "Erotico (The Burglars)" to the bracing martial tattoo of "The Battle of Algiers" and the scorched-earth electric guitar drama of Jody Harris and Robert Quine on "Once Upon a Time in the West," Zorn's extraordinary range pays homage to a seminal influence in a way far more appropriate than mere imitation could be.

The 15th anniversary edition on Tzadik offers all the music from the original issue along with six newly recorded bonus tracks. Unlike many other works from the period, The Big Gundown wears its age lightly and is as fresh and startling today as when first issued. The new tracks, featuring such recent Zorn collaborators as Derek Bailey and Mike Patton, effortlessly re-create the astonishing sound world that made the original release compelling and essential.

--- Steve Smith, JAZZIZ Magazine Copyright © 2000, Milor Entertainment, Inc. --From Jazziz

Number of Discs: 1

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