The Classic Guide to Strategy, projected at five volumes of which three have so far been recorded, is a technical tour de force. When volume two was released in 1996, Zorn announced that the third volume would be for alto saxophone alone, dropping the clarinets and duck calls that appeared on the earlier volumes. He also declared that he was going to have to work on his alto technique before he could perform it. The result of his efforts was unveiled seven years later at the concert recorded on this disc.
For most listeners, this will be a definite one-star album, and even that is only because Amazon doesn't let you award zero stars. The Classic Guide to Strategy dates back to Zorn's most experimental period, when he was interested in music as a series of gestures rather than as a harmonic or melodic continuum. Sqawks, squeaks, screams, bubbles (produced by blowing into a bowl of water), yelps, clucks, imitations of speech or animal noises are all that you will hear on this album other than the applause of an appreciative New York audience. Occasionally Zorn gives a second or two of conventional jazz phrasing for contrast, but that's about it.
Unlike some of Zorn's other experimental recordings, however, this really does seem to deserve the full five stars. Although it sounds very silly when you first hear it (and you do have to be a super-committed fan of experimental music to stay the course) there is some wacky magic on this album and the virtuosity of the performance is intoxicating.
If you can suspend judgement on whether this is "music" at all, give it a go.