It was a classic postmodern trope: take something from an earlier era that was seen as low art and champion it as being more worthy than high art. And, as a classical postmodernist, John Zorn was a past master at it. When his band Naked City played at the Leadmill, he introduced a piece, "Now we're going to play something my Britain's greatest composer of the 20th century, Michael Finnissy — no, I'm joking, of course it's John Barry". Carl Stalling, the in-house composer for Looney Tunes, was another of his favourite names to drop. At the time (late '80s, early '90s), I couldn't find any recordings of his work, but I filed the name away.
It turns out this album was made in 1990, but, you know how it was, stuff wasn't so easy to find then. It was over a decade later than I tracked it down and ordered it.
When it arrived, it was, frankly, an anti-climax. I mean, I know I'm missing all the elements that so inspire Zorn (and I'm sure his adulation is sincere, not just cultural posing). Maybe if I understood them, I'd enjoy it more. Actually I got a little dash of insight a few days ago from Fernando Otero's Wikipedia profile, which refers to instruments "chasing each other around a melody".
The CD was produced by Hall Willner, one of those people whose recurrence in my collection (mostly on William Burroughs albums) I would never have noticed had I not set about going through everything piece by piece.
MusicBrainz entry for this album
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