Today's entry is John Zorn's The Gift. which was released in 2001 on his own label Tzadik Records.
Now if you're not familiar with John Zorn, he's definitely an artist who would be very hard to sum up with a few descriptions, but I'll try my best.
Mr. Zorn is a prolific composer, producer, saxophonist (among many other instruments) of avant-garde music. Much of his early music was rooted in jazz, and mixed with a large dosage of experimental styles, such as free jazz, free improvisation, surf rock, metal, grindcore, punk just to list a few. His style, his eclectic-ness, his wide-range of musical styles and musicians that he's worked with have produced a library of close to 200 albums. At times the music he produces can be a harsh, brash style of noise with the flow of cartoon music. Other times, modern classical with operatic vocals, or in this case some smooth jazz, purely calming, and very contrasting to some of his other works. Overall, his genius of musical composition and his pushing the boundaries of multi-genre inspired music can be overwhelming at times for a new Zorn listener. However if there's one thing he'll never be accused of, is making the same album twice.
In 2001 he released The Gift. A slower, very calm Zorn was shown in this album. One that hadn't appeared much (up to that point). The Gift is a very laid back smooth Jazz/Exotica album with very heavy Surf Rock influences all over this beautiful album. This album is one of the best soundtracks to any lazy Sunday, or any other day of the week for that matter. If you're new to Zorn, I strongly recommend you check this album out, it's definitely one his most-accessible records.
