'Torture Garden' (1991)
John ZornALTO SAX Bill FrisellGUITAR Fred FrithBASS Wayne HorvitzKEYBOARDS Joey BaronDRUMS
The various members of the eclectic Jorn Zorn-led Naked City had all learnt their trade during the 1980's in the jazz and alternative music scenes, each making names for themselves in their own right with a number of different outfits. Built around freeform improvisation and utilising all forms of music from jazz, metallic funk, hardcore and rock, through to blues bop, soundtrack influences and Latin themes, Naked City was as much about deconstructing musical fences as simply screwing with people's preconceptions. Envisioned by composer/arranger/saxophonist John Zorn, the band looked to incorporate a vast array of instuments and an equally impressive line up of talented musicans able to freely experiment with the material. Zorn had previously recorded such albums as 'The Big Gundown', reworking the movie themes of Ennio Morricone, and 'Spillane', a homage to the B-movie in general and the Mike Hammer character in particular, for the Elektra Nonesuch label. Both albums met with critical acclaim from the highbrow media. Various side projects also saw the light of day, including 'Spy Vs Spy', described as an 'acoustic hardcore' treatment of the music of Ornette Coleman. Joining Zorn in Naked City was guitarist Bill Frisell, a student of the University of Colorado and of Berkeley College in Boston, from where he moved to Belgium to work with revered bassist Eberhard Weber. Relocating back to the US, Frisell became one of the jazz scenes most noted contributors, either as hired hand, songwriter or even band leader recording numerous albums on the Elektra Musician label. The band also included keyboardist Wayne Horvitz, who had been heavily involved in composing music for theatre, dance and film for many years. Horvitz also fronted his own band, The President, of whom Zorn was also a member. On bass, Naked City engaged the talents of a man better known for his work as a guitarist with the 70's avant-garde rock group Henry Cow, Fred Firth. This was a band which also used largely improvised pieces and therefore Firth's style was perfect for Naked City. Completing the band line up was drummer Joey Baron, a musician with a high pedigree having worked in the jazz world with artists such as Carmen McRae and Dizzy Gillespie. This is inspired, crack group of challenging musicians produced a distinctly alaraming slice of noise with their one album for Earache which has since gone on to be a cult record for the many Zorn maniacs and obsessives - it remains one of the labels most intruiging and difficult albums.