The String Quartets
The music of composer-saxophonist John Zorn has never been predictable, and this collection of the maverick's string-quartet work is certainly no different.Cat O'Nine Tailsstarts the set off: a 13-minute exploration of jump cuts and lifted melodies; it's filled with the most perfectly deceptive ways that Zorn can confuse, trick,andhumor his listeners. The piece never settles down, owing as much debt to (Carl) Stalling as Stravinsky.The Dead Man, a piece Zorn thinks of as his imagined "soundtrack" to "necessarily short S/M scenes," consists of 13 jarring suites of note-bending meditations and string shrieks. But things do get serious.Memento Mori--a 1992 piece that Zorn admits is a challenge for most listeners--transitions synapse-delicate passages to melodious bars with alarming beauty. On the achingly gorgeousKol Nidre, Zorn infuses a near-minimalist composition with Jewish melodies to powerful effect. This is Zorn's ode to the music of Arvo Pärt (and late Beethoven)--a highlight. While Zorn's best-known chamber music has been played by the Kronos Quartet, the jazz lineup on this disc is no less impressive: Joyce Hammann and Mark Feldman on violins, Lois Martin on viola, and Erik Friedlander on cello.--Jason Verlinde