Morricone fans, you should give this a try too! This will challenge your ears and your notions of one of your favorites, and that's a good thing. Zorn is always true both to the themes from the movies and the context of those movies, which is the most remarkable thing. But for those only used to straight renditions of the music, this CD will shock, because the music is put through a cut-and-paste technique that owes much to cartoon music, and a recontextualization that owes is all to a free-improvisation aesthetic. Don't let those ears and minds get flaccid, folks!


Remastered Zorn/Morricone project better than ever!   September 12, 2000
Daniel P. Whitworth (San Diego, CA United States)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

The first thing to note here is that this Tzadik reissue/remaster of John Zorn's Ennio Morricone tribute "The Big Gundown" genuinely sounds better that the original Nonesuch CD release. This is particularly noticeable on the more noise/cut-up oriented pieces like 'Metamorfosi' and the Zorn original 'Tre Nel 5000', where previously obscure sounds now stand out with alarming clarity. If this side of Zorn isn't to your liking, lusher tracks like 'Poverty (Once Upon A Time In America)' add more color-- Guy Klucevsek's accordion, Toots Thielmans' harmonica and pitch-perfect whistling-- to the extended pallette of Zorn's first cover project. The new liner notes are extensive to a fault, while the bonus tracks offer some new pleasures that really make this disc worth buying. The bonus tracks are not from the original sessions; they were recorded recently to flesh out the disc, but they're more than mere filler. 'Svegliatti & Uccidi' pairs Marc Ribot and Derek Bailey for a delightful jarring guitar excursion, while members of the Masada chamber ensembles (Ribot, Mark Feldman, Greg Cohen et al) tackle 'The Sicilian Clan' and 'Chi Mai' with real gusto. But for me, the highlight of this album remains the last track on the original release: Jody Harris and Robert Quine sculpting a towering wall of electric guitar pasta on the title piece from Sergio Leone's 'Once Upon A Time In The West.' An essential part of any Zorn collection. Now if only Tzadik would reissue the News For Lulu sessions....


Zorn's first masterpiece   April 29, 2005
Michael Stack (North Chelmsford, MA USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

One of the best albums in Zorn's catalog, "The Big Gundown" is a masterpiece augmented in this 15th anniversary edition with a number of new recordings. These are reinterpretations of Mooricone pieces (with one Zorn original) for various groups. The entire record is powerful and energetic, with breathtaking arrangements, brilliant performances, and a fire that had not been captured in Zorn's previous recordings. It is also probably his first true masterpiece.

I think in many ways, the opener and title track best illustrates the aesthetic on the record, if you don't like that one, you'll probably not care for the rest of it-- it covers a number of moods, being dark, haunting, theatrical, explosive and esoteric, sometimes all at once. This sort of theatrical mood extends across a number of songs, the haunting circular piano and percussion workout "Peur Sur la Ville" (with a blazing alto sax solo from Tim Berne), an the dark electric guitar workout take of "Once Upon a Time in the West", reduced a funereal pace.

But there are also many moments of delicate beauty as well-- take for instance "Poverty (Once Upon a Time in America)", with an unusual instrumentation of whistling, harmonica (both handled by Toots Theilman), harp and accordian. Particularly when the harmonica takes the melody, the support swells and embraces and holds on, expressing pain and loss and fear for the future. Or consider the brooding and yet someone still light "Giu la Testa (Duck You Sucker!)", building anticipation through its dark motifs and bizarre instrumentation (among others, the Japanese shamisen, english horn, acoustic guitar, gamecalls and keyboards).

The bonus tracks are no less essential-- Zorn brought in about everyone he played with for the originals, these were a chance to catch up. The amazing thing about Zorn is that as an arranger, he's lost none of his flair in the intervening years, in fact, he may have even gotten better. Zorn uses his "Bar Kokhba" sextet (the Masada String Trio augmented by guitarist Marc Ribot, drummer Joey Baron and percussionist Cyro Baptista) to great effect on breathtaking arrangements of "The Sicilian Clan" and "Chi Mai", and adds another great guitar workout feature with Ribot and Derek Bailey in a noisy, disjoint take of "Sveggliatti and Uccidi", but its Mike Patton's Tom growl on "The Ballad of Hank McCain" that is the gem of the material-- stunning delivery that really captures something special (and may be the best vocal Patton has ever done) over a delicate organ (Jamie Saft) and percussion (Baptista) backdrop that matches and perhaps outstrips the best of the original material.

This is essential music for Zorn fans, if you're not, this may well be a good place to start-- the music can be difficult, and it covers a ton of moods, but there is a lot to hear. Highly recommended.


Obviously, works for some people, but not me   March 6, 2008
Eric C. Sedensky (Madison, AL, US)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I bought this to fill out my "jazz core collection" as noted in The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings: Eighth Edition (Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings) (I'm working from both ends now), and I expected jazz. This is some kind of avant garde, fancy jazz, but not what I was hoping for, and not what I will listen to on a regular basis. This is a very musically, sonically, and tonically challenging work, and I consider the performances excellent, but simply put, this album will not bear up to repeated listening. When it comes to jazz, I know when I'm in the mood for Bill Evans, and when I'm in the mood for Duke Ellington, and in the mood for Billie Holiday, or in the mood for Miles Davis, etc. I will never be "in the mood" for John Zorn. This album sounds like what happens when a toy truck crashes into a music studio while the producers were taking a break watching a Clint Eastwood movie: hollow, tinny pianos, plastic snare drums, gunshot effects, and screaming. If you want a musically interesting CD, this is for you. If you want jazz music, you can take a pass on this.


Arrived safely ...but took some time :O)   February 5, 2010
Ragnar Torfi Jonasson (Hafnarfjordur, Iceland)
Well packaged, everything in order but shouldn't have taken weeks to arrive overseas... (should not that the period in question includes xmas where mail slows down to a halt)