Featuring two members of the exciting trio Rashanim with drum master Kenny Wollesen and Zorn himself on sax, this is a poignant and varied score for a new documentary about elusive film maverick Marie Menken who was a close friend of Andy Warhol, Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage, etc. and an important member of the first generation of American Experimental Filmmakers. Also included are five unique pieces of polyrhythmic polyphony for percussion and African thumb pianos, painting a picture of legendary West Coast skull collector Ray Bandar. Poignant exotica, moonlit moods, bizarre percussion and several tracks of manic intensity. TZADIK ARCHIVAL SERIES
The record explodes with “GoGoGo,” a full-on free jazz trio workout with Zorn’s wailing alto leading the charge. The calm is shattered, but delightfully so, and is restored in the shimmering “Moonplay,” from Menken. And on it goes through a whirling, dizzying, surreal journey in adventure, exotica, and interior travel. Highly recommended.
(Thom Jurek, All Music Guide)
compositions by John Zorn
Jon Madof — guitar
Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz — bass
Kenny Wollesen — drums
John Zorn— alto saxophone, wurlitzer piano
http://www.tzadik.com/
“The one thing I never do is sit down and seize a pen with the deliberate intention
of writing a story. Nothing but hack work comes of that. The only stories I write
are those whose central ideas, pictures, and moods occur to me spontaneously.”
—H.P. Lovecraft, in a letter to Frank Belknap Long
Recording the music for Workingman’s Death (FilmWorks XVI) in the beginning of 2005 was difficult and disheartening. The music went back and forth several times (which rarely happens to me) and because of logistical problems the project took months to complete. By the end of it I was exhausted. The experience left me disillusioned and triggered a compositional block that would last until August.
During this time I remained active—recording and editing my classical CD
Mysterium, producing over two dozen Tzadik releases including the FilmWorks Anthology, Sanhedrin compilation, Bar Kokhba set, Electric Masada Live and the first two volumes of the Book of Angels. I also organized and set up the East Village performance space The Stone, did a rare US tour and three tours in Europe with various Masada ensembles. People often ask me what to do about writer’s block and this is a perfect example of how I handle it: by changing direction and continuing to work. If you can set up a variety of different creative options in your musical life and follow the ebb and flow of energy successfully one can stay active
through periods where writing becomes difficult.
When these two film projects came up they seemed interesting but something inside me was still frozen tight. I put them off and turned several others down flat. In the beginning of August I awoke from a bizarre dream. The details are too much to go into here, but its intensity sparked a return to compositional creativity and ••• (fay ce que voudras) for solo piano, which had been brewing for over a year, was completed in a few short weeks. By the beginning of September I was ready to revisit the film scores, and screened Martina Kudlácek’s trailer for Notes on Marie Menken. The subject and images clicked immediately. The music on
this CD was written that very afternoon and we went into the studio two days later.
Marie Menken was an important member of the first generation of
American Experimental Filmmakers, but her work is still under appre-
ciated and little known. The expressive choreography of her handheld camer movements and painstakingly original approach to light, color, texture, form and rhythm gave her paintings, collages and short films a striking visual quality unique in all the world. For the most part shy and retiring, she came alive with a Bolex in her hand, and the music here touches on the dancing rhythms of her cinematography and the kinetic energy of her editing. In looking into her personal life I was struck by the great love and veneration many of my heroes felt for Menken. This moved some of the music toward a loving poignancy, as in the title track Menken. Some cues are intense and fast paced, following the crazy speed of films like GoGoGo, some are moody and exotic. Her film Arabesque for Kenneth Anger inspired a looping Middle Eastern vamp in eleven.
The swirling camera movements performed inside the Alhambra with Ken Anger standing behind her pushed the mix to a psychedelic delay effect I would never have thought of using on my own, but for the film it fit perfectly. There is always something tender and beautiful in Menken’s work, and hopefully that quality has somehow been captured in the music. —John Zorn, NYC 2005
How do you translate feelings and visions from one language to another? But more so, how do you transcribe the film visuals and subject into music? So I hurl the words in my mind upside down to explain to John. Then I realized that he simply understands me. He is fast in his mind and sees the essence. He has an incredible sensibility for cinema. I would like to express how deeply I am moved by the accuracy of his insight… In
Marie Menken’s work one feels this sense of wonder, seeing as if for the first time. Filmmaker Kenneth Anger tells: “Her religion was joy.” For her, John created a film score of touching poignancy and gentleness.
It is amazing how music and image can merge into a new pulse and resonate into a new organism. In the editing process filmmaker Henry Hills is my collaborator with his unique sense of rhythm and we fired each other up in the spirit of Marie Menken’s playfulness. I am indebted to John for his generosity in giving out sparks of creativity. Whenever I listen to his music I feel myself encouraged as an artist. I wish to make more movies to play his music. Mind, heart and action correspond in his work.
Notes on Marie Menken explores the almost forgotten story of the legendary artist Marie Menken (1909–1970) who became one of New York’s outstanding underground experimental filmmakers of the 1950s and 1960s, inspiring artists such as Stan Brakhage, Andy Warhol, Jonas Mekas, Kenneth Anger and Gerard Malanga. She was the probable role model for Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and ended up as a Warhol Superstar. Marie Menken was an abstract painter when she began to experiment with film. “Filmmaking was a natural evolution while I was engaged in painting, particularly since I was primarily concerned in capturing light, its effect on textured surfaces, its glowing luminescence in the dark, the enhancement of juxtaposed color, persistence
of vision and eye fatigue” she explains. Menken, who was a huge woman of Lithuanian background, represents the lyrical sensibility in the American avant-garde film. She manages to get the maximum visual intensity from her daily subjects. Her usage of single frame and her poetic attitude are unique. I am moved by her radical integrity.
—Martina Kudlacek, Prague 2005
NOTES ON MARIE MENKEN
tracks 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14
Jon Madof—guitar
Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz—bass
Kenny Wollesen—drums
John Zorn—wurlitzer piano (track 4), alto saxophone (tracks 6, 11), bolex (tracks 10, 14)
RAY BANDAR: A LIFE WITH SKULLS
tracks 2, 5, 8, 11, 13
John Zorn—african thumb pianos
Cyro Baptista—percussion
Kenny Wollesen—percussion (track 5)
1. Menken 5:27
2. Skull I 4:03
3. Glimpses 6:37
4. Mood Mondrian 4:31
5. Skull II 3:30
6. GoGoGo 8:13
7. Moonplay 4:42
8. Skull III 2:58
9. Tango Exotique 5:35
10. Zenscapes 1:07
11. Skull IV 1:40
12. Arabesque 5:09
13. Skull V 2:08
14. Bolex Dancing 1:37