Naked City (band)

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Naked City
Clockwise from left: Wayne Horvitz, John Zorn, Bill Frisell, Fred Frith, Joey Baron.
Clockwise from left: Wayne Horvitz, John Zorn, Bill Frisell, Fred Frith, Joey Baron.
Background information
OriginNew York City, New York, United States
Genres
Years active1988–1993 (brief 2003 reunion)
Labels
Yamatsuka Eye

Naked City was an avant-garde music group led by saxophonist and composer John Zorn. Active primarily in New York City from 1988 to 1993, Naked City was initiated by Zorn as a "composition workshop"[1] to test the limits of composition (and improvisation) in a traditional rock band lineup. Their music incorporated elements of jazz, surf, progressive rock, classical, heavy metal, grindcore, country, punk rock, and other genres.

History

Named after a 1945 book of graphic black and white photographs by

Carl Stalling—a Zorn favorite—who wrote music for many Warner Bros. cartoons
, that featured frequent shifts in tempo, theme and style.

Naked City's

Shimmy Disc and his own Avant and Tzadik
labels.

The album

Orlande de Lassus, Charles Ives, and Olivier Messiaen.[7]

The band's third album,

S/M film Jeux des Dames Cruelles.[8] The band released Leng Tch'e, in 1992 featuring a single composition which lasted just over half an hour.[9] Radio, released in 1993, was the first Naked City album composed solely by Zorn, and featured tracks crediting a wide range of musical influences.[10]

The final recording from the band, Absinthe (1993), featured a blend of ambient noise-styled compositions with tracks titled after the works of Paul Verlaine, Charles Baudelaire and other figures in the fin de siècle Decadent movement, and a dedication to Olivier Messiaen.[11]

Zorn discontinued Naked City when he felt "the need to write music for other ensembles, in other contexts, with new ideas".[3] A brief 15th anniversary reunion occurred in 2003 for two shows in Amsterdam and Warsaw respectively.[12]

Cinematic connections

The group covered numerous film soundtrack cuts, including work by Georges Delerue. Heretic was intended as the soundtrack for a film starring Karen Finley.

The tracks "Bonehead" and "Hellraiser", from Torture Garden, are featured in the opening sequence of

remake
.

Band members

Live members

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilation albums

References

  1. ^ [1] Archived November 14, 2004, at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Pareles J. Cut-and-Paste Sounds from John Zorn Group, New York Times, February 27, 1989.
  3. ^ a b "John Zorn's Naked City". Scottmaykrantz.com. 1993-08-20. Archived from the original on 2012-02-07. Retrieved 2012-07-27.
  4. ^ "John Zorn – Naked City". Discogs.
  5. ^ McCutchan, A. (1999) The Muse that Sings: Composers Speak about the Creative Process, pg. 161, Oxford University Press: New York.
  6. ^ Torreano, F. Allmusic Review: Torture Garden, accessed November 4, 2013
  7. ^ Mills, T. Allmusic Review: Grand Guignol, accessed November 4, 2013
  8. ^ Deupree, C. Allmusic Review: "Heretic"; accessed November 4, 2013.
  9. ^ Gilman, M. Allmusic Review: Black Box, accessed November 4, 2013.
  10. ^ Rikard, M. Allmusic Review: Radio; accessed November 4, 2013.
  11. ^ Deupree, C. Allmusic Review: Absinthe, accessed November 4, 2013.
  12. ^ Dahlen, C. Pitchfork Media Review: Naked City – The Complete Studio Recordings, January 19, 2005

External links

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