Zorn's first release of what is looking to be another very prolific year for the man, has finally arrived in the mail box after seeming to go AWOL for several weeks after I ordered it. Was quite pleased when it arrived and even more pleased to find how pleasant a recording it is.
"City of Slaughter" consists of the first 14 tracks and is for solo piano, as is the rest of this CD, and is superbly played by young Israeli pianist Omri Mor. More of Zorn's Jewish inflected jazz melodies prevalent here which always turn me on. Just beautiful music. Pleasant background music, which is kinda what it was designed for, backing a video installation at the new Russian Museum Of Jewish History and Tolerance, although I could imagine some of the images this music was set to were not so pleasant. On closer inspection there are some great melodies here and some superb playing. John fills out the CD with some improvised piano pieces, played by himself for a friends documentary and fit well with the previous music, although not as melodic. The final track is a solo piano interpretation of a piece from the Goddess Album which I brought and reviewed a while back. It is a great listen and just oozes minimalism a-la Phillip Glass, who's early stuff fascinates me. So after a long wait for it to arrive, I can say that I am quite impressed with this release and can give it a rating of 4/5.
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