| The Big Gundown | ||||
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| Studio album by John Zorn | ||||
| Released | 1986 (2000 - 15th Anniversary Edition) | |||
| Recorded | 1984−1985 | |||
| Genre | Avant-garde jazz[1] | |||
| Length | 49:27 (74:54 - 15th Anniversary Edition) | |||
| Label | Nonesuch/Icon, Tzadik | |||
| Producer | Yale Evelev | |||
| John Zorn chronology | ||||
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| 15th Anniversary Special Edition | ||||
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The Big Gundown is the third studio album by American composer and saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist John Zorn. It comprises radically reworked covers of tracks by the Italian film composer Ennio Morricone.
The album is named after a 1966 Spaghetti Western of the same name, directed by Sergio Sollima, starring Lee Van Cleef, and scored by Morricone. The album was first released in 1985 on the Nonesuch/Icon label. In 2000 a remastered 15th Anniversary Edition with additional tracks was released on CD on Zorn's Tzadik Records label.[2]
In 1985 Zorn had been working in New York City's experimental music scene for almost a decade (the album was originally to be called "Once Upon a Time in the Lower East Side"), but The Big Gundown launched him to wider prominence. In the notes for the 2000 reissued CD, Zorn describes The Big Gundown as representing a creative breakthrough as well for being the first time he worked extensively with multi-track recording, overdubbing and ornate orchestration. Though his main instrument is alto sax, Zorn did not play on most tracks, adding only a few touches of piano, game calls, harpsichord or musical saw.
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