News for Lulu (album)
| News for Lulu | ||||
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| Studio album by John Zorn/George Lewis/Bill Frisell | ||||
| Released | 1988 | |||
| Recorded | August 28 & 30, 1987 | |||
| Genre | Hard bop | |||
| Length | 72:42 | |||
| Label | HatHut | |||
| Producer | John Zorn | |||
| John Zorn chronology | ||||
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| 2008 Reissue Cover | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |  |
News for Lulu is an album of hard bop compositions performed by saxophonist John Zorn, trombonist George Lewis and guitarist Bill Frisell. Released in 1987, the album features tunes associated with the classic hard bop era of the 1950s and 1960s, written by the likes of Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley, Freddie Redd and Sonny Clark. News For Lulu was recorded in the studio and live at the Willisau Jazz Festival. Though Zorn, Lewis and Frisell were known at the time for their wildly experimental music, the hard bop songs are interpreted in a manner that's mostly faithful to the originals.
The original cover photograph features the actress Louise Brooks who played 'Lulu' in the silent film Pandora's Box (1929), evoking the song "News For Lulu" by Clark. It was released in 1988 on the Swiss HatHut Record label, and re-released in 1993 and again in 2008 with a new cover and additional take of "Melanie" recorded live at Jazzfestival Willisau on August 30, 1987.
The same group later released festival performances, including from Jazzfestival Willisau, on More News for Lulu.
Critical reception to the album was largely positive. The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow stated "There are hints of the avant-garde here and there, but also plenty of swinging, bop-oriented solos and coherent ensembles. Very intriguing music that is highly recommended to a wide audience of jazz and general listeners".All About Jazz reviewer Martin Longley observed "These compositions all sound very familiar and this can’t be because they’re aired very often on the bebop stage. This has become an oft-visited disc in the collection, but its tunes surely deserve greater use as standards, either because they’re real hard bop classics or because they exist as prime distillations of archetypal bebop moves. It’s hard to tell which is which and why they sound so amazingly compulsive". Chris May of All About Jazz wrote: "It's a perfect blast on two levels—as a celebration of some great tunes and as platform for incisive collective improvisation".
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