Naked City cover

Naked City

Released

The 1990 debut by Zorn’s quintet — Bill Frisell on guitar, Wayne Horvitz on keyboards, Fred Frith on bass, Joey Baron on drums, with Boredoms vocalist Eye Yamatsuka howling and shrieking up front — brought his jump-cut aesthetic out of the New York avant-garde and onto college radio. His own furious compositions, which caromed from country to free jazz to dub to grindcore with little narrative logic but energy to spare, were balanced by romantic versions of movie themes from Ennio Morricone, Henry Mancini, and more, plus a take on Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman” that features a driving rock backbeat.

Phil Freeman

Recommended by

Suggestions
Big Band cover

Big Band

Julius Hemphill
Evening with Joe Henderson cover

Evening with Joe Henderson

Joe Henderson, Charlie Haden, Al Foster
A Love Supreme cover

A Love Supreme

John Coltrane
Real Gone cover

Real Gone

Tom Waits
Frances the Mute cover

Frances the Mute

The Mars Volta
Jazz Codes cover

Jazz Codes

Moor Mother
Philip Cohran & the Artistic Heritage Ensemble cover

Philip Cohran & the Artistic Heritage Ensemble

Philip Cohran & the Artistic Heritage Ensemble
This Is Tehran? cover

This Is Tehran?

Various Artists
Magico: Carta de Amor cover

Magico: Carta de Amor

Jan Garbarek, Egberto Gismonti, Charlie Haden