Camera? Rolling! Sound? Speed! Action!... Cinema is experienced through sight and sound. Music is only sound - or is it? On the new Zan Zone album, Shorts, the music seeks to emulate the cinema, to illuminate in the mind's eye as well as the ear the story each song has to tell. Zan Burnham, principal writer of these mini-movies, has gathered thirteen intriguing 'musical screenplays' from hundreds of songs he's written over almost forty years. Shorts follows 2009's Time & Materials, which was well praised and has been played on quite a few radio shows. Matt M. from RadioIndy.com said about Time and Materials, 'This is a strong album that is for music lovers and musicians alike and proves to be rootsy, melodic, and quite interesting.' However, unlike the all-acoustic Time & Materials with it's fairly minimal production values, this new album is at a whole other level. Shorts features 19 superb musicians and singers who create an inspired environment for each song. The dominant musical characters are acoustic and electric guitars, violin and vibraphone. Backed with a solid rhythmic foundation, the songs also have banjo, mandolin, cello, accordion, lap steel and glockenspiel in supporting roles. Added to all that are soundscapes and effects that enhance the listener's feeling of place, as if they're watching thirteen little movies. Now playing - Shorts film festival! Bring your ears and imaginations. From baroque-folk to modern folk with a string quartet; from jazz to rock; from a torch song to a western, and from reggae to hybrid country-afro-beat-ska, Shorts covers tremendous range and depth. Lyrically, the songs are revelational and allagorical. These sound pictures revolve around themes of beginnings and endings, death and rebirth. Even the three instrumentals hint at these concepts. Recorded at Zan's home studio, and at the esteemed Atlantic Sound Studios in DUMBO, Shorts is fortunate to feature many great musicians and singers. Besides Brooklyn-based band leader Zan Burnham, who has notched almost 40 years of playing guitar, there's his former bandmate from their early 20's, Bill Ware, who has, for decades, been one of the top vibes players in the world. Bill's long career includes two years of touring in the 1990's as part of Steely Dan, recording with Elvis Costello and David Byrne, among others, and on-going participation with numerous jazz groups who tour worldwide. Charlie Burnham (no relation to Zan), besides playing half a dozen instruments, has played violin in James Blood Ulmer's band as well as with Cassandra Wilson. Saddi Zain continues to play his acoustic bass in many broadway pit bands, and he has played all over the world as a sideman and a leader. His counterpart on electric bass, Joe Raposo, who was no doubt musically inspired by his song-writing and piano-playing father, has played electric bass professionally for decades. Joe Raposo, Sr., wrote many famous songs, including 'Bein' Green' and many of the great Sesame Street songs. All 19 musicians and singers on this project are immensely talented and possess great skills which are amply demonstrated on Shorts. Since Zan Zone's prior CD's & EP's have already caught the ear of numerous DJ's, critics, and music lovers, there can be no doubt that Shorts will be well received. With the production of the Shorts CD scheduled to be over sometime this spring, Zan Zone will be looking to host a CD release party or two and, hopefully, play some shows as time goes by. While performing such detailed music is an exciting possibility, at the very least, this album stands as an unusually captivating piece of work that attempts to sense and discern some of the profundities of experience and existence in a multi-dimensional artistic performance. So go get some popcorn and your dancin' shoes.
