John Zorn, the man, the legend

"New Traditions in East Asian Bar Bands" is a recording of three of John Zorn's later Game Pieces. For those unfamiliar, the Game Pieces are essentially a series of rules for a group to improvise with-- nothing is precomposed, but a set of cues are used to indicate change in direction in performance. The original Game Pieces were named after sports and games, then eventually Zorn switched to Asian titles. Because of the nature of the Game Pieces, they are extraordinarily hard to "get" and they can sound fairly random, particularly the early recordings, when in fact they are highly ordered. The later recordings, where the performers have more experience in this sort of thing, sound much more cognizant and are easier to understand, but even still, they're an extraordinarily difficult listen if you're not ready for it: case in point, the three pieces on this recording.

What I'm trying to say is that if you're not altogether familiar with Zorn's work, the Game Pieces are probably not the best place to start (that'd probably be "Naked City"). Even if you are listening to Zorn, virtually all the Game Pieces are difficult to get until you've seen an example of how they work. If you can't get to a live show, there's some footage on the documentary piece "A Bookshelf on Top of the Sky: 12 Stories about John Zorn" by Claudia Heuermann, which is what initially cleared it up for me. Indeed, I couldn't listen to any of these before I got that. Mind you, if you want to explore the Game Pieces, "New Traditions in East Asian Bar Bands" may be the best place to start.

To begin with, the recordings benefit from restricted format-- each recording is a duet with an Asian-language narration on top. "Hu Die" (from 1986) is recorded with guitarists Bill Frisell and Fred Frith, "Hwang Chin-ee" (1988) with drummers Joey Baron and Samm Bennett, and "Que Tran" (1990) with keyboardists Anthony Coleman and Wayne Horvitz. With only two musicians, it's easier to get a feel for the interactions between them and the subtleties of their work. It also helps that it seems these are about extended dialog-- the early Game Pieces all appear to be about (relatively) brief moments, meaning that as ideas develop, they get thrown away in favor of the next, leaving little in the way of the illusion of conventional structure for the listener to grab onto. "Hu Die" certainly proves to be an exciting listen-- Frisell and Frith wrap around each other, one usually seems to lead with the other following, playing in forms from gentle and supportive to explosive and fierce. By and large, explosiveness is the driving factor of "Hwang Chin-ee", although the drummers do entwine around the narration to a far greater level of detail to the guitarists (who seem by and large to ignore the narrator). "Que Tran" is by and large a minimalist affair, with the keyboards suggestive around and delicate, rarely stating anything directly around the quiet narration.

The net result, a surprisingly diverse and reasonably enjoyable record, in fact probably the most so of the Game Pieces. Highly recommended.