Spy vs. Spy: The Music of Ornette Coleman

fun

I dug this. I love Ornette Coleman and a strange noise filled album featuring riffs on his sound was just a fun listen.

totally didn't understand this album, but I read a great review that gave good context/perspective.

Chaotic. Was fun at first, but lacks any kind of variation.

No.

The Good: one of my favorite cartoons from the Mad Magazine era.
The Bad: no madcap spy stuff...
The Ugly: ...

No clue who John Zorn is.
No clue how I'm supposed to enjoy the music... though I tried, and will try again.

From reading other commentary it seems this music needs additional listening, or maybe one of the million other albums which he's published

Completely mental. Experimental Jazz Grindcore

This making it on here, but nothing actually by Ornette Coleman, is the perfect summary of the 1001 Album list.

Not huge into free jazz, and I don’t *love* this, but it’s pretty damn interesting. Could grow on me one day.

2.5/5

Nice to have something with a bit of free jazz about it. I hope there are some of the 60s touchstone stuff for that genre.

I’m a big fan of Expressive and Loud Jazz so this definitely hit the spot.

Link to YouTube Video I used: https://youtu.be/zCHB5LLPQ3s?si=aSMsJH4sHzX5bNwd

October 12, 2024

HL: "Good Old Days", "Enfant", "Broad Way Blues", "Chippie"

Imagine being the double bass player having to compete with two drummers

Well, apart from a single listen of "The Shape of Jazz To Come" last year, I can't speak much for the source material. And the other main influences at play, thrash & hardcore punk, are ones I generally avoid if I can help it. Yet all these elements smashed together provides a surprisingly compelling listen. I threw some highlights up there but trying to separate the little pieces from the chaotic whole doesn't really do the experience justice.

I may be reading into this, at times, literal noise, but for all that talk about free jazz being intimidating and inaccessible, you don’t need a music education to *get it*. Maybe all one has to do is just Get! in! THE PIT!

Take a jazz song and give it to five musicians; two playing sax, one playing upright bass, and to more playing drums. Tell them to simultaneously improvise that song, but do it as blisteringly fast as their musical ability allows. Then do that over and over again for 40 minutes, or so.

It's hard to listen to but also oddly enthralling. Not sure I'd like to hear it more than once though.

"The horror... the horror!!!!"

I think there was one song, maybe 2/3rds of the way through, that was sort of listenable. And that's being kind. The rest is complete garbage. Nothing about this is interesting, compelling, or good.

I was listening in the car with one of my kids (I like to torture them at times) and she, at one point, didn't realize that we were on the 7th song of the album because it "all sounded exactly the same."

Another of the bottom 10 records on this generator...

One of the reviews states that it "sounds like the drums are beating the shit out of the saxophones" and that may be the most accurate description I've ever heard. This dude created a genre called thrash jazz. It is exactly what it sounds like. Insanely fast drumming and sax parts. Just utter chaos. It's quite hilarious actually. John Zorn is clearly insane. Man, those horns are being abused.

I guarantee that this album was influenced heavily by Miles Davis' album of the same caliber: Bitches Brew.

Favourite songs: Feet Music, Ecars, Good Old Days

Least favourite songs:... Most of the album

2/5

At the end of “Chippie” someone exclaims: “Oh my god”.

Oh my god, indeed.
This is a jazz album thanking Napalm Death in the liner notes!

An absolutely horrendous introduction to both jazz, hardcore punk and grindcore.
It really makes me appreciate the hours and hours of jazz I’ve already heard - if not I would have no idea what was going on here.

Most of the time I still don’t, but after a while I start to grasp what Zorn is doing with Spy Vs. Spy. Especially towards the end the band start churning out exceptional renditions of compositions like “Feet Music” and “Mob Job”.

I might be in dire need of a Xanax and another week of vacation - but as challenging as this might be, it is a record you should at least try listening to.

Spy vs Spy
Firstly, I love that this exists. Although I may not want to listen to experimental deconstructed thrash jazz it’s important to me that people make this kind of stuff.
Secondly, I love that I don’t have to listen to it.

In actuality, despite being a difficult it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. It just sounds like a lot of free form and to be honest most normal jazz: lots of parping and daft drumming. As I listened on Youtube I have no idea of the individual tracks, and honestly it doesn’t matter as I don’t think discerning each track is the point. And one listen through is surely enough too.

I’ve only given one star once and that was to Christina Aguilera. Despite that album being on the surface more listenable I still think it’s worse than this. At least this has intent, a sense of artistic purpose and doesn’t care if anyone likes it. That Christina album is so cynically conceived, produced and executed and so entirely limited in its worldview that it’s objectively awful. This may be significantly more on the unlistenable side of things but I believe it has artistic merit, and although it’s not for for me and I’ll never listen to it again I have a respect for it. Music can be many things for many people but context, intentions and ambitions matter beyond the response to the music itself, so I can’t just dismiss this as a one. Peversely tempted to go 3, but on my personal scale that would indicate that I might listen again, so it’s a 2.
⭐️⭐️
I also really like the album artwork.

Sounds like 2 drummers kicking a saxophonist down the stairs, while another saxophone screams for help, and a bassist nods along. Not an easy listen, but certainly unusual. One I would probably like more after listening to it a whole bunch of times. But I don't want to, so I won't be!

Definitely free jazz