The Gift

Artist: John Zorn
Label: Tzadik
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 702397733225
EAN: 0702397733225
ASIN: B000059RTZ

Release Date: 2001-03-27

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Listmania:

John Zorn---he would hate this!
good taste in music doesn't exist_best avantgarde and others
Music that I love
F*** Beginning - Fall Head First Into John Zorn
Top music releases of 2001
The best of John Zorn
listen to John Zorn
The Magic of John Zorn's TZADIK in my CD collection (part I)
the essential zorn recordings
Music for the open-minded.

Tracks:

Makahaa
The Quiet Surf
Samarkan
Train To Thiensan
Sanke Catcher
Mao's Moon
Cutting Stone
La Flor Del Barrio
Bridge To The Beyond
Makahaa (Reprise)

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Customer Reviews:

an awesome album of high prestige!.......2007-01-11

I was expecting a lot more technical playing on this album,and after the first listening session I said to myself"hmm...it's good chill music,but there isn't much substance." After hearing these gentle, flowing tunes a few more times though I realized that this isn't supposed to be a "balls-to-walls" action-packed album;the idea which makes this music amazing is that it's meant to be a mental "seasoning".I use it while doing mellow chores,cooking,etc. and it is a great cognitive comforter which sets a nice pace for easy activities.zorn fans might be hit-n-miss on this one,but it's great chill music!

Pleasant, but feels underdeveloped.......2006-07-30

If you fell in love with the Naked City song "Sunset Surfer" from Radio like I did, this album is for you.

An entire album of chilled out, mellow Zorn compositions with beautiful melodies and tasteful arrangements. They cover a multitude of styles other than 'surf', maintaining a fairly constant mood but branching into ethnic harmonic structure and jazzy rhythms. There's a lot of diverse instrumentation here, all sorts of percussion, train bells, hand drums, flutes, synthesizers, trumpets... and these are a supplement to what could be a typical rock line up of drums, bass and guitar.

The problem with this album and the thing that prevents it from being an ESSENTIAL purchase is the lack of building on established ideas. Unlike the aforementioned "Sunset Surfer", these songs reach no climax or resolution, in fact they progress almost none at all. Zorn was content to establish an atmospheric, perfectly balanced backdrop and let the musicians jam with it. You've got one or 2 catchy melodies per track, switching to another theme for a little, then switching back. Solos here and there (great ones). Once a track has begun, it quickly becomes predictable. It's a good chill out album.

An all around great cast of players. Mark Ribot is an expressive guitar player, and we've got the legendary Trevor Dunn on bass, albeit playing a supportive role. Naked City alumnus Joey Baron's work here is tasteful and fitting. The other musicians are fantastic as well although less known to me.

Even the decidedly different songs follow the aforementioned structure. The dark, orchestrally-augmented jazz of "Mao's Moon" with solo trumpet is a work of genious. Probably my favorite track on the album, it moves between lush, romantic feel and ominous darkness. The trumpet player does a fantastic job. "Bridge to the Beyond" is the other slightly out-of-place number, also on the darker side of things with Mike Patton showing up briefly to do some chanting in the background. The dissonant, harmonic-filled majority of the song sounds like a build-up to horror movie violence, while the contrasting piano section feels nostalgic. It's a good mix. There's also "Cutting Stone", 7 minutes of a strange, percussive stringed instrument and tribal drums. There's no melody, and I've found this one hard to absorb. Being that it's truly something I don't understand, I won't judge it.

Of the more "Sunset Surfer"-esque tunes, I find myself favoring "The Quiet Surf" for its subtle tension.

I don't really catch the vibe of the album in general as dark like many other here do, although parts of "Mao's Moon" and "Bridge to the Beyond" fit that description. The majority evokes the content, summer night atmosphere "Sunset Surfer" did.

As for the strange and questionable artwork, who really cares? If you don't like it, don't look at it. Most of it isn't flat out obscene anyway, just bondage oriented. No matter what Zorn's attachment to this sort of thing may be, I do kind of wonder why he keeps plastering it all over his releases. Since no one else has said it flat out, the cover (beneath the gift wrap) depicts a young girl on a chair, possibly tied up, holding a gun. A weird image.

The Gift is mildly recommended to fans of Zorn. To those who aren't yet fans, I recommend buying some Naked City.

Music is great, Zorn is Sick........2006-07-06

I went through a Zorn phase in the early to mid nineties. I thought the Japanese bondage and torture was cool, I thought showing pictures of pre-pubescent Japanese girls urinating was art. I thought seeing severed body parts in a ditch in the ground was neat. Now I realize that all these images paint a picture of a very mentally disturbed man. One can only imagine the activities Zorn has gotten himself into over in Japan. What set me off was buying "The Gift". Having downloaded some tracks and listened to a few on Amazon, I thought "wow Zorn has chilled out and is actually using his musical talents to make good music". So of course I buy the CD and as soon as I open it I have to look at pre-pubescent Japanese girls being tortured and urinating. I hope Zorn has never hurt or traumatized any pre-pubescent Japanese girls in real life, however, at this point I think that is almost a foregone conclusion.

Zorn, I hope you get caught.

Very pretty.......2006-02-18

As others have previously (and better!)pointed out, this CD is John Zorn's take (partly) on surf guitar (marc Ribot plays)but it is also much much more. It is on the one hand beautifully played but also very innovating in some ways. OK, the artwork is in questionalble taste.

Zorn takes on surf music........2005-11-14

One of the more unexpected albums in John Zorn's catalog, "The Gift" finds Zorn exploring primarily surf music. With guitarist Marc Ribot as the primary hero in the preceedings, Zorn creates a swirling, modern take on the genre, with a couple odd tracks thrown in to keep you guessing. The core of the band is a series of Zorn regulars (Ribot, Jamie Saft, Trevor Dunn, Cyro Baptista and Joey Baron), with contributions by Ned Rothenberg, Dave Douglas, Zorn on piano and theramin, Mike Patton and a string quartet.

Again, by and large it's surf music, and it's really well done-- from exciting stuff ("Makahaa") to more laid back ("The Quiet Surf") and a more funky, bluesy sound ("La Flor del Barrio"). The point is, all the surf stuff is fantastic, Ribot reminds us just how versatile and talented he is. The non-surf stuff is a bit of a mixed bag though, from an organ, springy percussion and shakuhachi ("Smarkan") to lush, romantic and bleak ("Mao's Moon") to just totally bizarre and inexplicable ("Bridge to the Beyond"). But with the exception of "Mao's Moon", none of the non-surf songs work as well as the surf material.

A word of caution-- below the present artwork slipcase is some somewhat disturbing artwork. Be forewarned.

In the end, "The Gift" is a decent record, Zorn's done much better, but it's a worthwhile pickup.

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