• Artist: John Zorn
• Flags: Lyrics are included with the album, Avant-garde, Instrumental
• Rating:
• Styles: Structured Improvisation, Avant-Garde, Modern Composition
• Similar Albums: Hallelujah, Anyway - Remembering Tom Cora, The Temperature in Hell Is Over Three Thousand Degrees, Timo's Message, In Our Style, Plays Duke Ellington, The Hill, My Standard, Painted Rhythms: The Compleat Ran Blake, Vol. 1, Breakthru, Old Bottles, New Wine, Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill, Innocent

Review

Using his "file card" technique to create the title piece "Spillane" (whereby musical ideas written on note cards form the basis for discreet sound blocks arranged by way of a unifying theme), John Zorn forges an impressionistic narrative out of stretches of live-music jazz, blues, country, lounge, thrash, etc., and a variety of samples and spoken dialogue inspired by Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer detective novels (recited by John Lurie). Like he did on his Ennio Morricone tribute The Big Gundown, here Zorn blends a disparate array of sound sketches into a pleasing, if not especially determinate or always logical whole. (In his self-penned and expansive liner notes, Zorn says that the text and his overall conceptual take on Mickey Spillane's work form the thematic structure of this piece.) Clarity aside, "Spillane" comes off as an exciting and atmospheric evocation of the clipped prose, seedy dives, and back alleys found in hard-boiled Spillane books like Kiss Me, Deadly. Sticking to the disc's tribute theme, Zorn uses Japanese actor Yujiro Ishihara as the inspiration for "Forbidden Fruit." Working with the Kronos Quartet, turntablist Christian Marclay, and Japanese vocalist Ohta Hiromi, Zorn concocts an exotically frenetic, atonal cut-up piece to evoke the actor's films from the '50s. And bringing things back home, so to speak, Zorn features Texas blues guitarist Albert Collins on the lengthy and slightly abstract blues jam "Two Lane Highway." Helping "The Iceman" out are organist Big John Patton, bassist Melvin Gibbs, and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson, among others. In addition to these veterans of past Zorn recordings, the likes of keyboard player Anthony Coleman, guitarist Bill Frisell, and drummer Bobby Previte contribute to the Spillane disc as well. Spillane is not only one of the highlights in Zorn's catalog, but also makes for a fine introduction to the composer's vast body of work. ~ Stephen Cook, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track Title	iTunes	Composers	Performers	Time
Spillane		John Zorn	John Zorn	(25:12)
Two Lane Highway: Preacher Man/White Line Fever/Nacogdoches Gumbo/East	...	John Zorn	John Zorn	(13:30)
Two Lane Highway: Hico Killer/Long Mile to Houston	...	John Zorn	John Zorn	(4:46)
Forbidden Fruit		John Zorn	John Zorn	(10:20)

Credits

Jim Staley (Trombone), Robert Quine (Guitar), Robert Quine (Voices), Albert Collins (Guitar), Albert Collins (Voices), Bob James, Bob James (Tapes), Seigen Ono (Mixing), The Kronos Quartet (Strings), Arto Lindsay (Lyricist), Anthony Coleman (Organ), Anthony Coleman (Piano), Anthony Coleman (Celeste), Ronald Shannon Jackson (Drums), Christian Marclay (Turntables), David Breskin (Producer), Hank Dutt (Viola), Bill Frisell (Guitar), Melvin Gibbs (Bass), David Harrington (Violin), Ohta Hiromi (Voices), Dave Hofstra (Bass), Dave Hofstra (Tuba), Wayne Horvitz (Piano), Wayne Horvitz (Keyboards), Robert Hurwitz (Executive Producer), Joan Jeanrenaud (Cello), Bob Ludwig (Mastering), John Lurie (Voices), Big John Patton (Organ), Bobby Previte (Percussion), Bobby Previte (Drums), John Sherba (Violin), John Zorn (Clarinet), John Zorn (Arranger), John Zorn (Sax (Alto)), John Zorn (Main Performer), Carol Emanuel (Harp), David Weinstein (Celeste), David Weinstein (Sampling), Carin Goldberg (Art Direction), Carin Goldberg (Design), D. Shigley (Guitar), D. Shigley (Voices), D. Shigley (Photography)