“All the various styles are organically connected to one another. I’m an additive person—the entire storehouse of my knowledge informs everything I do. People are so obsessed with the surface that they can’t see the connections, but they are there.”~ John Zorn

Continuing in a pastiche-composition style as Frank Zappa (although neither actually invented it) avante-garde jazz composer John Zorn has always interested me, since I first heard about him in the 1980’s.

His early career in the 1970’s included playing modified duck calls into buckets of water, as well as his improvised saxophone performances.

That alone, piqued my curiosity enough as a teenager to investigate further.

“The Big Gundown”, an imaginative reworking of Ennio Morricone covers, was his first big “hit” record in 1985.

Ennio Morricone, himself, praised the album.

His later hardcore jazz groups Naked City and Painkiller really made me into a big fan.

He was also instrumental in the release of Carl Stalling’s Merry Melodies / Looney Toons  cartoon soundtrack recordings.

I am guessing that those projects are why Mr. Bungle chose him to produce their first album for Warner Bros. Records. in 1991.

I think I have to agree with Mr. Zorn’s philosophy of musical composition.

I was always an obsessive record collector.

Everything that I listened to felt interconnected on some level, even if they seemed separated on the surface.

William Shakespeare isn’t James Joyce or Dr. Seuss.

But, they all speak English.

Something like that.