Spy vs Spy (album)

Infobox Album
Name = Spy vs Spy
Type = Album
Artist = John Zorn


Released = 1989
Recorded = 1988
Genre = Avant-garde
Length = 54:01
Label = Elektra/Musician
Producer = John Zorn
Reviews = *amg|id=10:0cfwxq9gldde|rating|4.5|5

"Spy vs Spy: The Music of Ornette Coleman" is an album by American composer and saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist John Zorn, featuring the compositions of Ornette Coleman performed in the brief intense style of Zorn's hardcore miniatures.

The liner notes thank Ornette and Denardo Coleman, Mick Harris of Napalm Death, Ted Epstein of Blind Idiot God, Pil of Lip Cream (a Japanese thrashcore group), The Accused, Craig Flanagan, DRI, CBGB, and "the New York-London-Tokyo Hardcore Triangle".Liner notes, "Spy vs Spy", 1998.] The album approaches free jazz from the perspective of hardcore punk, particularly taking note of the contemporary innovations of thrashcore and grindcore. Zorn would later pursue these preoccupations in the thrash jazz group Naked City.

Like some classic free jazz albums ("", "Ascension", Archie Shepp's "Mama Too Tight"), different saxophonists improvise simultaneously in stereo. Tim Berne appears on the left channel, while John Zorn is recorded on the right channel.

Track listing

# "WRU" - 2:38
# "Chronology" - 1:08
# "Word for Bird" - 1:14
# "Good Old Days" - 2:44
# "The Disguise" - 1:18
# "Enfant" - 2:37
# "Rejoicing" - 1:38
# "Blues Connotation" - 1:05
# "C. & D." - 3:05
# "Chippie" - 1:08
# "Peace Warriors" - 1:20
# "Ecars" - 2:28
# "Feet Music" - 4:45
# "Broad Way Blues" - 3:42
# "Space Church" - 2:28
# "Zig Zag" - 2:54
# "Mob Job" - 4:24

*All Compositions by Ornette Coleman
*Recorded at Power Station, New York City on August 18 and 19, 1988

Personnel

*John Zorn: alto saxophone
*Tim Berne: alto saxophone
*Mark Dresser: bass
*Joey Baron: drums
*Michael Vatcher: drums

References