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Out of stock

Ground Zero

Plays Standards

Label: ReR Megacorp

Format: CD

Genre: Jazz

Out of stock

Just when you thought it would be safe... Ground Zero are back with a CD of extraordinary covers, some are massive, others strange, all add something to their originals and were selected because of their importance to founder Otomo Yoshihide's personal musical biography - all explained in his excellent accompanying notes. Just the version of Shed a Little Tear is worth the whole CD.

Details
Cat. number: ReRGZ3
Year: 2022
Notes:
Recorded January 6-9, 1997 at Gok Sound, Kichijoji, Tokyo, exept "The Bath of Surprise" recorded January 4, 1997 at Fuji Height #103, Hoya, Tokyo. Mixed on January 10-13 & 31, 1997 at Gok Sound, Kichijoji, Tokyo. Mastered February 17, 1997 at Kojima Recording, Yoyogi, Tokyo. Special thanks to: Chris Cutler, for his perseverance patience and good will over the last five years, which made this reissue possible.
An impressively diverse brew is served up and reconfiguredRead more

Other than Null & Void, this is the most fully realized album from Ground Zero, one of many projects master-minded by ambitious gadfly-turntablist Otomo Yoshihide. Although this Japanese band includes two drummers, a sampler-player, and a shamisen (Japanese stringed instrument) player, the real voice is saxophonist Kikuchi Naruyoshi, whose wails and bleats lead most of the songs here. As far as cover albums go, it's obviously not as historic as Ray Charles Modern Sounds in Country and Western, but it's much smarter than Guns N' Roses The Spaghetti Incident?. An impressively diverse brew is served up and reconfigured. Some highlights are Chilean protest singer Victor Jara's "El Derecho De Vivir En Paz done as a driving waltz, torch-class "Those Were The Days" done as a maelstrom, jazz pianist Steve Beresford's "The Bath of Surprise" recorded in audio-verite in an actual bathtub, a lovely sweeping tribute to singer Sakamoto Kyu, a John Philip Sousa march that would make Monty Python proud and a 'Roland Kirk version' of "I Say A Little Prayer." All of which bespeaks of Yoshihide's kaleidoscopic vision of Eastern/Western music, especially appealing here as it's presented in a song-based format that grounds the avant excursions.