John Zorn as Present-Day Composer

Late last year Tzadik Records released John Zorn's Femina, his chamber composition dedicated to women in the arts. It comes with an interesting booklet of photographs by Kiki Smith, but the music is the main attraction.

Femina utilizes a small chamber ensemble of piano, harp, percussion, violin, electronics, recitation and cello to create a multi-stylistic work that combines minimalist ostinatos, free sounding passages, modern contemporary classical writing and other elements as well. The combination itself is not extraordinary; it's the music itself.

Everything comes together on this recording to create a memorable experience. It has a Zen-like largess in the way it spans outward into music of spacious expanse. It is music that is truly open, in the best sense of the word. I find it exhilarating. Zorn has managed here to recapture the feeling of wonder and enchantment that sometimes has been lost from modern music.

Is John Zorn's New Music "Easy Listening?"

John Zorn is a musical rebel. Throughout his career he has had a certain restless view of genre, never content to get pigeonholed as a writer-performer in "X" category. So he has created music in the concert modernity, the avant garde, bop, improv, free, modern Jewish music, death metal, and others besides.

One of his new recordings, Alhambra Love Songs (Tzadik) for piano trio (Rob Burger, Greg Cohen and Ben Perowsky) seemingly has yet another immersion in unfamiliar (for Zorn) genres. The notes on the cover of the CD announce that the music contained within is "in an easy listening mode," then go on to mention Vince Guaraldi, Henry Mancini and Ramsey Lewis.

So what of the music? Does it makes sense or does it even matter that this could be called easy listening music? OK, it is not difficult listening. It certainly has something about it that reminds of the Guaraldi trio and others like him: very melodic, lyrical, yet rhythmically engaging.

What matters is that the music is in fact a delight to hear. There are odd time signatures, catchy melodies, rock and jazz combinations a la Medeski, Benevento, the Bad Plus and others lately prominent. And there is no small amount of improvisation involved--in the Guaraldi-early Jarrett mode for the most part.

The trio does a capital job creating a trio presentation out of Zorn's pieces, and in the end it's the capacity to delight that puts this disk over the top. Enjoy, and call it anything you like.