John Zorn
The Gift

Identifiable in the vein of Zorn's "easy listening," not for this reason banal, "The Gift" is a tribute to exotica and surf music. The two genres are peculiar in themselves. Exotica is a genre that was popular in the United States for a brief period from the late '50s to the mid-'60s; the idea was to combine orchestral arrangements with almost tribal rhythms of Hawaiian or Polynesian origin. The peculiarity of this genre is indeed the percussion, conga, bongo, Tahitian log drums, bird calls; the two most prominent exponents were Martin Denny and Les Baxter. Surf rock was born in California in the early '60s, and it is a mainly instrumental rock genre; everyone will remember "Miserlou" in Dick Dale's version in the Pulp Fiction soundtrack ("Miserlou" is an old Turkish song, but that's another story...). The attempted experiment is a sort of fusion between surf-rock and exotica-swing.

The musicians are the usual ones from the New York avant-garde, this time engaged in a more world-music context. The percussion by Brazilian Cyro Baptista is naturally one of the pillars of the album, along with Marc Ribot's guitar that seems to roar and dance on the waves. The compositions are as usual all up to the situation; we highlight "Makahaa" which opens and closes the album and the memorable "La flor del Barrio." Notable too is "Cutting Stone," which will be revisited under the title "Sex Magick" in one of the later works, "I.A.O."

The result is extremely enjoyable music, practically you can dance to it almost as if it were samba or salsa. The packaging is also original, which externally depicts a gift package and inside drawings of young girls in vaguely erotic poses, which indeed might almost disturb some unsuspecting buyers. Everything seems to mock the presumed naivety of a certain type of rock and roll.