There is a sort of wonderful "mystique" that comes with the career of John Zorn. To say that his entire body of work is intimidating due to how massive and ever-expanding it is would be an incredible understatement due to how incredibly vast and rich it happened, and happens, to be. It all leads to a rather dedicated fanbase, a group of individuals that is fascinated with all the things that both him and his label have been able to offer consistently year after year. At the same time there exists the opposite, a rather very vocal group that is always stating openly how tired they are of Zorn's shenanigans or how his work is just a below average copy of the man's influences. And if there is a point in Zorn's history where these two groups collide on a curious way it is without a doubt when it comes to talking about one of his most iconic lineups: Naked City. I always find it fascinating how people are vocal about having "grown out" of their Zorn phase, as if being into one particular artist was just a thing of foolish youth, further away from "musical maturity", specially when we talk about an ensemble such as this one, something that Zorn himself treats in almost the same way as the rest of his body of work, nothing more than another pebble in the road, something to maybe look back fondly to at times, but not something to get stuck with. Of course everyone is bound to have their own opinion, but I just find this as an interesting point to make because Naked City doesn't embody everything that makes Zorn special, because as an artist he kept changing, exploring, evolving I'd dare to say, to different musical ventures with both the same musicians as well as with new ones... But Naked City just fucking ruled man.
Naked City was an experiment, it was one of Zorn's more contemporary ventures, serving as both a love letter to ALL the influences that the man was fascinated by during that time, as well as a challenge to himself as a musician and composer, to see what he could be able to come up with just by using a somewhat classic lineup of guitar/bass/keyboards/drums/vocals (with his sax thrown in between). And perhaps for a lot of folk it does come off as a below average imitation of other ordeals, but Naked City did not fool around. The music was complex, it was rich, exploring both an enormous amount of genres as well as the ways a band could be able to approach said genres. Because despite all the influences being there, with covers or "tracks inspired by", the band managed to make every single song a thing of their own. Rigid playing meeting free-form improvisation. But if there was a context where all of these attributes clashed in a perfect way, it was during their many live performances.
The band was messy at times, with failed takes, hardcore performances, musicians pushed to their limits, but it all comes off so naturally in such an uncanny way because despite all the little flaws the setlists were carried through. Zorn acted both as an integral part of the band as well as the obvious mastermind behind it, the conductor, the maestro, but not someone that took main center stage presence while carrying that duty, rather putting himself on the side (as he always tends to do), giving all members an equal amount of importance. All the live recordings are just something else, be it with Yamataka on vocals or those times where Mike Patton stepped in to carry that duty, during that crucial point in time when both were expanding their limits as vocalists and musicians due to playing with such demanding conditions, both a game and a discipline. But it's just not the musicianship alone, the way Zorn interacts so smoothly with the audience, the little commentary in between tracks, the introduction to what's gonna happen next, the whole band laughing and not an ounce of tension being felt... it is just something else, something that few bands have been able to convey while playing something almost equally as formidable. Their sets could go from one hour, one set gigs, to 3 sets a day or one 2 and a half long continuous ordeal, there was just no way of knowing, but that was, and still is, the big excitement of listening to them.
People can say what they want, but Naked City will forever be a giant staple in modern experimental/avant-garde "music" (because caging Zorn's work into just the realm of Jazz alone will never feel right for various reasons) just because of how unique it was, and how much it invited and inspired a wide range of other musicians to just step out of their comfort zone in order to dive into other new grounds. Zorn would continue moving forward, looking back at Naked City as something special and irreplaceable, but not as something that defined his life, because it didn't do so back then and it doesn't have any reason to do it nowadays. Some of the big classics of this ensemble are brought back from time to time, but never in the same way, always with that philosophy of moving forward and trying new things above all else (big example of this is the fact that Osaka Bondage and Batman were performed once again during the "Song Project" gigs with a fresh twist in mind). But for a lot of fans who let themselves be marveled by Zorn's body of work regardless of age or experience in the world of music, this band is just something deeply special. Speaking for myself alone I can truly say that after so much time going consistently through various artists and discographies I always find something new in a lot of Zorn's work, but specially with Naked City in both their live and studio versions.
Only thing I can do is to keep spreading my love, respect, and fascination towards it in any way possible.
What I bring here is one of my favorite gigs from them, a 1992 era performance right after the 1991 ensemble that had Patton on vocals and after the incredible short lived project that was Houdini de Sade, bringing back Yamataka on main vocals and performing fascinatingly long sets in the period of Leng Tch'e and before Radio and Absinthe were released, marking the end of Naked City as it was. There is an abridged pro-shot recording of this set, with excellent quality, but it definitely takes away from the experience just for it not including the whole thing in that treatment. The whole set is fascinating, Leng Tch'e performed in its entirety with Yamataka and one of grindcore's tour-de-force vocalists' Kevin Sharp as a guest (wonderful rendition but no performance of it will EVER come close to the amazing performance of it with the Houdini de Sade ensemble), almost all the highlights from Torture Garden being performed in a powerful way, and with a lot of varied pieces still on an early stage but still being carried through in such amazing ways.
The audience tapes of this set have been circling on various blogs throughout the years, some more complete and in way better sound quality than others, and for various wonderful reasons, but I bring my piece here, the full thing pasting various sources together when needed. It is nowhere close to the pro-shot professional version but it is enough for now. Almost all the things that I mentioned beforehand on that writeup that doesn't even come close to properly conveying my intrigue towards this band can be found in this recording. A once in a lifetime performance from a once in a lifetime ensemble.
Because even if one can only DREAM for the full pro-shot version of this concert to be released to the public in order for the whole thing to be properly appreciated we can only be grateful that not just this, but almost every single one of the Naked City performances were documented by dedicated fans who had the fortune to witness them in person.
Has to be heard in order to be believed. Simply magical.
NAKED CITY during this gig was:
John Zorn: Alto Sax, Conductor
Bill Frisell: Guitar
Wayne Horvitz: Keyboards
Fred Frith : Bass
Joey Baron: Drums
Yamatsuka Eye: Vocals
Kevin Sharp: guest vocals on Leng Tch'e
01 - Leng Tch'e (30:49)
02 - Strange Cargo (8:49)
03 - Asylum (2:47)
04 - Terkmani Teepe (5:43)
05 - Party Girl (3:58)
06 - Sunset Surfer (3:56)
07 - Blunt Instrument (1:39)
08 - Igneous Ejaculation (0:49)
09 - Slan (1:06)
10 - Speedfreaks (1:28)
11 - Bonehead (1:49)
12 - Piledriver (1:17)
13 - Blood Duster (1:02)
14 - Poisonhead (1:53)
15 - Catacombs (5:20)
16 - Thrash-Jazz Assassin (1:43)
17 - Hellraiser (2:28)
18 - Dead Spot (1:18)
19 - Sack of Shit (1:55)
20 - Metal Tov (3:05)
21 - Once Upon a Time in America (4:10)
22 - Snagglepuss (2:58)
23 - The Yodel (11:34)
24 - Bone Orchard (6:01)
25 - The List of Adrian Messenger (4:12)
26 - A Night in Tunisia (3:55)
27 - Osaka Bondage (2:24)
28 - Demon Sanctuary (1:03)
29 - Torture Garden (1:11)
30 - Blood Is Thin (1:34)
31 - Super Stupid (4:52)
32 - Blunt Instrument (1:26)
33 - Kaoru (1:26)
34 - Pistol Whipping (1:38)
35 - Facelifter (1:19)
36 - Numbskull (1:39)
37 - Shangkuan Ling-Feng (2:10)
38 - I Die Screaming (4:57)
39 - Anthem (4:16)
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