News for Lulu
News for Lulu | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by John Zorn/George Lewis/Bill Frisell | ||||
Released | 1988 | |||
Recorded | August 28 & 30, 1987 | |||
Genre | Hard bop | |||
Length | 72:42 | |||
Label | HatHut | |||
Producer | John Zorn | |||
John Zorn chronology | ||||
| ||||
2008 Reissue Cover | ||||
News for Lulu is an album of hard bop compositions performed by saxophonist John Zorn, trombonist George Lewis and guitarist Bill Frisell.
Released in 1987, the album features tunes associated with the classic hard bop era of the 1950s and 1960s, written by Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley, Freddie Redd and Sonny Clark. News for Lulu is primarily a studio recording, though live versions of three of the studio tracks are included at the end of the album. Though Zorn, Lewis and Frisell were mostly known at the time for playing experimental music, the hard bop songs are interpreted in a manner that's mostly faithful to the originals.
The original cover photograph features the actress Louise Brooks who played 'Lulu' in the silent film Pandora's Box (1929), evoking the song "News for Lulu" by Clark. It was released in 1988 on the Swiss HatHut Record label, and re-released in 1993 and again in 2008 with a new cover and additional take of "Melanie" recorded live at Jazzfestival Willisau on August 30, 1987.
The same group later released the recording More News for Lulu, which featured 1989 live performances drawn mostly from the same group of hard bop compositions.
Reception
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [1] |
Stereo Review | sharp[2] |
Critical reception to the album was largely positive. The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow stated "There are hints of the avant-garde here and there, but also plenty of swinging, bop-oriented solos and coherent ensembles. Very intriguing music that is highly recommended to a wide audience of jazz and general listeners".[1]
All About Jazz reviewer Martin Longley observed "These compositions all sound very familiar and this can’t be because they’re aired very often on the bebop stage. This has become an oft-visited disc in the collection, but its tunes surely deserve greater use as standards, either because they’re real hard bop classics or because they exist as prime distillations of archetypal bebop moves. It’s hard to tell which is which and why they sound so amazingly compulsive".[3] Chris May of All About Jazz wrote: "It's a perfect blast on two levels—as a celebration of some great tunes and as platform for incisive collective improvisation".[4]
Andrew Jones compared the unusual sax-guitar-trombone lineup to a group led by Jimmy Giuffre in the late 1950s, featuring the leader's sax and clarinets alongside valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer and guitarist Jim Hall (see, e.g., Western Suite). Like Giuffre's group, Zorn's band for the Lulu sessions had no traditional rhythm section (drums, piano and/or bass), and as a result the three musicians found themselves sliding in and out of soloing and supporting roles depending on the song and arrangements, occasionally veering into experimental territory but mostly swinging and staying rooted in blues.[5]
Track listing
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "KD's Motion" | Dorham | 3:32 |
2. | "Funk in Deep Freeze" | Mobley | 4:31 |
3. | "Melanie" | Redd | 4:07 |
4. | "Melody for C" | Clark | 4:26 |
5. | "Lotus Blossom" | Dorham | 4:08 |
6. | "Eastern Incident" | Clark | 4:04 |
7. | "Peckin' Time" | Mobley | 3:13 |
8. | "Blues Blues Blues" | Redd | 4:17 |
9. | "Blue Minor take 1" | Clark | 3:43 |
10. | "This I Dig of You" | Mobley | 3:13 |
11. | "Venita's Dance l" | Dorham | 3:23 |
12. | "News for Lulu" | Clark | 4:07 |
13. | "Ole" | Redd | 3:47 |
14. | "Sonny's Crib" | Clark | 5:22 |
15. | "Hank's Other Tune" | Mobley | 3:52 |
16. | "Blue Minor take 2" | Clark | 3:26 |
17. | "Windmill" | Dorham | 0:40 |
18. | "News for Lulu" | Clark | 4:19 |
19. | "Funk in Deep Freeze" | Mobley | 3:29 |
20. | "Windmill" | Dorham | 1:03 |
Personnel
- John Zorn - alto saxophone
- George Lewis - trombone
- Bill Frisell - guitar
References
- ^ a b Yanow, Scott: Allmusic Review accessed March 13, 2009.
- ^ Puterbaugh, Parke (August 1989). "Review: John Zorn, George Lewis, Bill Frisell — News for Lulu" (PDF). Stereo Review. Vol. 54, no. 8. New York: Diamandis Communications Inc. p. 80. ISSN 0142-6230. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 September 2021. Retrieved 26 October 2021 – via World Radio History.
- ^ Longley, Martin: All About Jazz Review, All About Jazz, October 6, 2008
- ^ May, Chris: All About Jazz Review, All About Jazz, June 11, 2008
- ^ Jones, Andrew: Plunderphonics, 'pataphysics & Pop Mechanics: An Introduction to Musique Actuelle, 1995 SAF Publishing LTD, ISBN 0946719152
- v
- t
- e
- Lacrosse
- Pool
- Hockey
- Archery
- Cobra
- John Zorn's Cobra: Live at the Knitting Factory
- John Zorn's Cobra: Tokyo Operations '94
- New Traditions in East Asian Bar Bands
- Xu Feng
- Cobra: John Zorn's Game Pieces Volume 2
Pieces
- Spillane
- The Bribe
- Elegy
- Kristallnacht
- Godard/Spillane
- Femina
- Dictée/Liber Novus
- Interzone
- Mount Analogue
- Voodoo
- The Big Gundown
- News for Lulu
- More News for Lulu
- Spy vs Spy
- Redbird
- The Book of Heads
- Duras: Duchamp
- Angelus Novus
- Aporias: Requia for Piano and Orchestra
- The String Quartets
- Cartoon S/M
- Madness, Love and Mysticism
- Songs from the Hermetic Theatre
- Chimeras
- Magick
- Mysterium
- Rituals
- From Silence to Sorcery
- The Satyr's Play / Cerberus
- What Thou Wilt
- Lemma
- On the Torment of Saints, the Casting of Spells and the Evocation of Spirits
- The Alchemist
- Fragmentations, Prayers and Interjections
- In the Hall of Mirrors
- Myth and Mythopoeia
- 1986-1990
- Music for an Untitled Film by Walter Hill
- 1990–1995
- S&M + More
- Tears of Ecstasy
- 1996
- Cynical Hysterie Hour
- 1997
- Trembling Before G-d
- In the Mirror of Maya Deren
- Secret Lives
- Three Documentaries
- Invitation to a Suicide
- Hiding and Seeking
- Protocols of Zion
- Workingman's Death
- Notes on Marie Menken/Ray Bandar: A Life with Skulls
- The Treatment
- The Rain Horse
- Sholem Aleichem
- Belle de Nature/The New Rijksmuseum
- The Last Supper
- El General
- The Nobel Prizewinner
- City of Slaughter/Schmatta/Beyond the Infinite
- Bar Kokhba
- The Circle Maker
- 50th Birthday Celebration Volume 11
- Lucifer: Book of Angels Volume 10
String Trio
- The Circle Maker
- 50th Birthday Celebration Volume 1
- Azazel: Book of Angels Volume 2
- Haborym: Book of Angels Volume 16
- Music for Children
- Taboo & Exile
- The Gift
- Hemophiliac
- 50th Birthday Celebration Volume 6
Anniversary
Celebration
- Astaroth
- Azazel
- Malphas
- Orobas
- Balan
- Moloch
- Asmodeus
- Volac
- Xaphan
- Lucifer
- Zaebos
- Stolas
- Mycale
- Ipos
- Baal
- Haborym
- Caym
- Pruflas
- Abraxas
- Tap
- Alastor
- Adramelech
- Aguares
- Moonchild: Songs Without Words
- Astronome
- Six Litanies for Heliogabalus
- The Crucible
- Ipsissimus
- Templars: In Sacred Blood
- The Lost Judgment
- The Dreamers
- O'o
- Ipos: Book of Angels Volume 14
- A Dreamers Christmas
- Pellucidar: A Dreamers Fantabula
- Alhambra Love Songs
- In Search of the Miraculous
- The Goddess – Music for the Ancient of Days
- Simulacrum
- The True Discoveries of Witches and Demons
- Inferno
- The Painted Bird
- 49 Acts Of Unspeakable Depravity In The Abominable Life And Times Of Gilles De Rais
- The Garden Of Earthly Delights
- Baphomet
- Chaos Magick
- Nostradamus: The Death of Satan
Inspirations
- IAO
- Enigmata
- Nova Express
- At the Gates of Paradise
- Nosferatu
- Rimbaud
- A Vision in Blakelight
- The Concealed
- Dreamachines
- Shir Hashirim
- Psychomagia
- On Leaves of Grass
- The Gnostic Preludes
- The Mysteries
- In Lambeth
- In Memory of Nikki Arane with Eugene Chadbourne
- Locus Solus
- Yankees with Derek Bailey & George E. Lewis
- Deadly Weapons with Steve Beresford, Tonie Marshall & David Toop
- Ganryu Island with Sato Michihiro
- The Art of Memory with Fred Frith
- Zohar with Yamantaka Eye
- Nani Nani with Yamantaka Eye
- Harras with Derek Bailey & William Parker
- Euclid's Nightmare with Bobby Previte
- Weird Little Boy with Trey Spruance, Mike Patton, William Winant & Chris Cochrane
- Downtown Lullaby with Wayne Horvitz, Elliott Sharp and Bobby Previte
- Prelapse with Prelapse
- Buck Jam Tonic with Bill Laswell & Tatsuya Nakamura
- Naninani II with Yamantaka Eye
- The Stone: Issue One with Dave Douglas, Rob Burger, Bill Laswell, Mike Patton & Ben Perowsky
- The Stone: Issue Three with Lou Reed & Laurie Anderson
- The Art of Memory II with Fred Frith
- Late Works with Fred Frith
- @ with Thurston Moore
- Sonic Rivers with George E. Lewis & Wadada Leo Smith