SPY VS. SPY: THE MUSIC OF ORNETTE COLEMAN

John Zorn - Spy Vs. Spy: The Music Of Ornette Coleman

The shape of grind to come.

As a saxophone player, I'm a fan of both Ornette Coleman and John Zorn. Ornette and Zorn shares too much with themselves. They were innovators in music and alto sax, sometimes (most of) people used to criticize them, but it wasn't any trouble for their capacity and creativity. I have been a member of a free-grind band when I was younger. I feel every music has a strong and deep connection, and the hc/grindcore fits perfect with jazz. Naked City (Zorn's masterpiece) is another definitive proof. Both genres are somehow "extreme". Here, the compositions of Ornette Coleman were taken to a disturbing direction. Like the original "Free Jazz" album, by Coleman, Spy vs Spy was recorded with different saxophonists improvising simultaneously in stereo: Tim Berne (fantastic out-jazz musician) on the left channel, John Zorn on the right. There's two drummers in the line-up.

This album is pure energy. Just check the first tracks and you will see how the band lead Ornette's Chronology to a higher level of musical density. The tracks aren't deformed, like some avant-garde covers, the theme is just the same, you feel exactly the same music as Coleman, but it sounds explosive, like "hey there, someones installed a bomb in a classic track, and it's exploding right now". The cover illustrations agreed. There's something like Carl Stalling again, or maybe Scott Bradley, a notorious random sense of comical violence.

An influential album. Awesome. It couldn't go wrong at all with Zorn and Berne playing Coleman.

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