Famous jazz composer John Zorn new album 2008!

“If nothing else, John Zorn is a man of stunningly diverse interests. While generally thought of as the enfant terrible of modern jazz music, Zorn’s influences include not just avant-garde jazz masters of various forms from Kagel to Ayler to early Napalm Death, but this is the same guy who stated on NPR that, “Dick Dale… is welcome to ANYBODY’S Bar Mitzvah”.

“The Dreamers”, in the tradition of The Gift, is an exploration not of Zorn’s avant-garde passions, but of his commercial ones.

Right from the start, it’s clearly going to be Ribot who’s the star of this one, particularly on the first half of the record, and really this is no surprise– Ribot eats this kind of stuff up, providing delicate lyricism (Hawaiian tinged “Mow Mow”), bleak, wailing guitar over an extended performance with stunning use of space (”Anulikwutsayl”) and fierce energy that boils over when prodded by the composition (”Of Wonder and Certainty”). Along the way, Zorn also serves up a great sing-song piece (”Toys”, the only piece on which Zorn actually performs– stating the theme and serving up the only real slice of skronk while he wails over free association from Saft and Wollesen), a great funk/blues workout (”Exodus”, another great workout for Ribot) and even a chance for Saft to show off how lyrical he can be on the Rhodes (”Nekashim”). When closer “Raksasa” finishes up its rolling atmospherics, you’ll probably find yourself either restarting the disc or reaching for The Gift to hear more like it.

While this isn’t going to appeal to Zorn’s entire audience - certainly there’s those who really want to hear the skronk all the time, “The Dreamers” really is a superb effort and a nice change of pace from Zorn. Highly recommended.”
Michael Stack

Performed by the musicians from Electric Masada - Marc Ribot (guitar), Jamie Saft (keys), Kenny Wollesen (vibes), Trevor Dunn (bass), Joey Baron (drums) and Cyro Baptista (percussion), John zorn - alt. sax.

01. Mow Mow [3:03]
02. Uluwati [3:37]
03. A Ride On Cottonfair [4:22]
04. Anulikwutsayl [9:02]
05. Toys [2:46]
06. Of Wonder And Certainty [4:30]
07. Mystic Circles [6:08]
08. Nekashim [3:56]
09. Exodus [7:02]
10. Forbidden Tears [3:07]
11. Raksasa [5:15]

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