GANRYU ISLAND (MICHIHIRO SATO / JOHN ZORN)

I am a big fan of Ganryu Island. I find the persistent rhythmic quality of the shamisen to carries the listener along when the squawking and bawling of zorn's reedplay becomes shrill, and the interplay between the two instruments is just incredible. I know of no other duet, in free jazz or any other form, so evocative of two men on a beach with swords and waves, gulls, pines, a steady expansive blue horizon, and a wealth of theatrical animosity. Admittedly not everybody thinks this setting needs music. But if it DID, man, give me this crazy gobbling every time. Explosive and serene, it's rollicking, imagistic, and mesmerizing.