I still remember being introduced to saxophonist John Zorn’s
\ncombination freeform jazz\/grindcore side project Naked City when I
\nwas in college radio. The station’s music director, Anthony (whom
\nI’ve written about before on these pages) was in the studio doing
\nhis show, and I happened to wander in to chat. Normally, our tastes
\nin music were as different as night and day; I often thought the
\nstuff he listened to was the musical equivalent of someone
\nmasturbating with a chainsaw.<\/p>\n
But he looked at me and said in a deadpan voice, “This is a song
\ncalled ‘Fuck The Facts’.” Eleven seconds later, the track was over,
\nand I stood there in dropped-jaw shock. I was hooked, no question
\nabout it.<\/p>\n
Zorn, an eclectic bird in his own right, put together this
\ncombination of some of rock and jazz’s best (albeit little-known)
\nmusicians and formed Naked City, a group that broke the mold and
\nrules when it came to all forms of music. Their self-titled debut
\nis the musical equivalent of a heart attack; you never really know
\nwhat’s lurking around the corner as the next track, even if you’ve
\nlistened to the album 50 times. But if you’ve got the stomach for
\ntruly different music, you will love this album.<\/p>\n
With Zorn on alto sax, Bill Frisell on guitar, Wayne Horovitz on
\nkeyboards, Fred Frith on bass, Joey Baron on drums, and the
\ncharming Yamatsuka Eye on vocals (or at least what Zorn calls
\nvocals; others might disagree), Naked City merges the worlds of
\njazz, rock, country, and a then-little-known form of music in
\nAmerica called grindcore. In England, bands like Napalm Death (whom
\nI got hooked on at the same time) were spewing forth an average of
\nthree songs in one minute, with rhythms that sounded like a
\nhummingbird’s heart hopped up with methamphetamines. To Zorn, this
\nwas just another new musical path to forge.<\/p>\n
The band does treat some forms of music with respect, such as
\nEnnio Morricone’s “The Sicilian Clan,” John Barry’s “James Bond
\nTheme,” Henry Mancini’s “A Shot In The Dark” and the original
\n“Saigon Pickup”. These moments of musical reverence provide not
\nonly surprise (they usually follow a more intense number), but also
\na respite from the madness that makes up
\nNaked City<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Oh, but what a wonderful madness it is. The first side of the
\ntape features 17 songs, a few of which clock in at under 30
\nseconds. If Eye is actually saying anything, I can’t tell; his
\nvocals, wonderful to my ears as they are, sound like he dropped the
\nradio in the bathtub and is being electrocuted. (This, I think, is
\nthe desired effect for Naked City.) Baron flails on his drums as if
\nhe’s having a seizure, while Zorn empties his lungs into his
\nsaxophone.<\/p>\n
Thinking about it, words really don’t describe Naked City’s
\nsound. I mean, how do you adequately describe a number that goes
\nfrom the thrash-attack of grindcore to a Latin rumba to a jazzy
\nbeat? It’s kind of like describing what having an asthma attack is
\nlike to someone who doesn’t have asthma. (Being a bronchial
\nasthmatic, I speak from experience.) You have to experience
\nNaked City<\/i> to really understand what they’re all about.<\/p>\n
And what they are about, in retrospect, is about re-inventing
\nfree-form, jazz and otherwise. Combining such elements into songs
\nlike “You Will Be Shot,” “Batman” (which was re-named “Gotham” on
\nlater pressings), “Punk China Doll” and “Speedball” doesn’t seem to
\nmake sense until you hear it for yourself. (Kind of like how I
\ndon’t understand how some people can put pineapple on pizza.)<\/p>\n
While
\nNaked City<\/i> is certainly groundbreaking, it hardly is for
\neverybody. The faint-hearted will be running for the exits before
\nZorn and crew can really get warmed up; purists of jazz, rock, and
\npossibly even grindcore might consider the marriage of several
\nstyles of music sacreligious. Possibly. But for the rest of us,
\nNaked City<\/i> represents unbridled energy, passion and possibly
\neven anger channeled into music. The resulting noise is sheer joy
\nto those who get it, and sheer madness to those who don’t.<\/p>\n
Naked City recorded one more album (not on Nonesuch\/Elektra)
\nbefore apparently throwing in the towel. Too bad, but not
\nsurprising. Seeing that this music could be considered the
\nnitroglycerine of jazz, it was only a matter of time before it went
\nker-plooie. Thank God we have
\nNaked City<\/i> to remind us what these forefathers created for
\nmusicians yet to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7522],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-39274","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-naked-city","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39274"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39274"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}