Zu (band)
Encyclopedia

Biography

Hailing from Ostia
Ostia
Ostia may refer to:*Ostia , a municipio of Rome on the Tyrrhenian Sea coast*Ostia Antica, a township and port of ancient Rome*Ostia Antica , a district of the commune of Rome...

, a town near Rome, Zu are an atypical trio made of drums, electric bass, baritone saxophone and electronics. Formed in Rome in 1997, they began as composers and players for theatre performances. The band is composed of three members: Luca Mai on baritone saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

, Massimo Pupillo on bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

 and Jacopo Battaglia on drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

. Zu have released fourteen album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

s, including two live album and two splits, and played in festivals in Europe, America, Asia and Africa. In 2006 the band toured with the Fantômas Melvins Big Band, a superband which is a fusion of Fantômas
Fantômas (band)
Fantômas is an avant-garde metal supergroup formed in 1998 in California, United States. The band is named after Fantômas, a supervillain featured in a series of crime novels popular in France before World War I and in film, most notably in the 60s French movie series.-History:Fantômas began just...

 and the Melvins. As of 2011, Gabe Serbian (Ex-Cattle Decapitation, Ex-Locust) performs on drums with the band.

The band are members (except for Serbian) of the Italian folk-jazz group Ardecore.

Style

Although difficult to define, Zu's style could be characterised as a fusion of math rock
Math rock
Math rock is a rhythmically complex guitar-based style of experimental rock that emerged in the 1980s and that was very influenced by progressive rock like King Crimson, Frank Zappa, Henry Cow - and 20th century composers such as Steve Reich and John Cage...

, heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...

 and noise rock
Noise rock
Noise rock describes a style of post-punk rock music that became prominent in the 1980s. Noise rock makes use of the traditional instrumentation and iconography of rock, but incorporates atonality and especially dissonance, and also frequently discards usual songwriting conventions.-Style:Noise...

, but with the caveat that it does not respect boundaries or genres. The music is instrumental, and features virtuosic drumming, powerful bass and distorted saxophone.

One constant element in Zu's music is collaboration, and many of the band's albums are billed as collaborations with a guest musician (such as Mike Patton
Mike Patton
Michael Allan "Mike" Patton is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and actor, best known as the lead singer of the metal/experimental rock band Faith No More. He has also sung for Mr...

, Buzz Osbourne, Mats Gustafsson
Mats Gustafsson
Mats Olof Gustafsson is a Swedish saxophone player and a stalwart on the Scandinavian free jazz scene. He is known for his tonal belligerence and intensity when improvising....

 and Nobukazu Takemura
Nobukazu Takemura
Nobukazu Takemura is a Japanese musician whose style has run from jazz to house to drum and bass to chamber music to electronic glitch within less than a decade. Born in Hirakata, Osaka in August 1968, he became interested in punk and New Wave music when young...

). Often, a collaborator will join them at live performances as well. Members of the band also collaborate with other musical projects, most of which exist only as live performances.

Reception

The band's album Radiale, recorded with Bob Weston
Bob Weston
Bob Weston is an American musician, producer, recording engineer, and record mastering engineer. Critic Jason Ankeny declares that "Weston's name and fingerprints are all over the American underground rock of the post-punk era, producing and engineering dates for a seemingly endless number of...

, was placed in The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...

s jazz poll for 2004.

John Zorn
John Zorn
John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...

 described the band as creating "a powerful and expressive music that totally blows away what most bands do these days".

In 2009, Carboniferous was voted Album Of The Year in Rock-A-Rolla magazine's Best Of 2009 poll.

Personnel

  • Luca T. Mai – baritone saxophone
    Baritone saxophone
    The baritone saxophone, often called "bari sax" , is one of the largest and lowest pitched members of the saxophone family. It was invented by Adolphe Sax. The baritone is distinguished from smaller sizes of saxophone by the extra loop near its mouthpiece...

  • Massimo Pupillo – bass
    Bass guitar
    The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

  • Gabe Serbian - drums

Major collaborators

  • Eugene Chadbourne
    Eugene Chadbourne
    Eugene Chadbourne is an American improvisor, guitarist and banjoist. Highly eclectic and unconventional, Chadbourne's most formative influence is free jazz. He has also been a reviewer for Allmusic and a contributor to Maximum RocknRoll.Chadbourne started out playing rock and roll guitar, but...

     – guitar
    Guitar
    The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

     on The Zu Side of the Chadbourne and Motorhellington
  • Jeb Bishop
    Jeb Bishop
    Jeb Bishop is an American jazz trombone player.He grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. He has studied music at Northwestern University, engineering and philosophy at North Carolina State University, and philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Arizona,...

     – trombone
    Trombone
    The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...

     on Igneo
  • Mats Gustafsson
    Mats Gustafsson
    Mats Olof Gustafsson is a Swedish saxophone player and a stalwart on the Scandinavian free jazz scene. He is known for his tonal belligerence and intensity when improvising....

     – saxophone
    Saxophone
    The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

    s on How to Raise an Ox
  • Xabier Iriondo – on Zu/Iceburn
  • Fred Lonberg-Holm
    Fred Lonberg-Holm
    Fred Lonberg-Holm is an American cellist based in Chicago. He relocated from New York City to Chicago in 1995.Lonberg-Holm is most identified with playing free improvisation and free jazz. He is also a composer of concert works...

     – cello
    Cello
    The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

     on The Way of the Animal Powers
  • Nobukazu Takemura
    Nobukazu Takemura
    Nobukazu Takemura is a Japanese musician whose style has run from jazz to house to drum and bass to chamber music to electronic glitch within less than a decade. Born in Hirakata, Osaka in August 1968, he became interested in punk and New Wave music when young...

     – on Identification with the Enemy - A Key to the Underworld
  • Spaceways inc. (band) – on Radiale
  • Roy Paci – trumpet
    Trumpet
    The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

     on Bromio
  • Mike Patton
    Mike Patton
    Michael Allan "Mike" Patton is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and actor, best known as the lead singer of the metal/experimental rock band Faith No More. He has also sung for Mr...

     – vocals
    Human voice
    The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal folds for talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, etc. Its frequency ranges from about 60 to 7000 Hz. The human voice is specifically that part of human sound production in which the vocal folds are the primary...

     on some live dates and Carboniferous
  • Ken Vandermark
    Ken Vandermark
    Ken Vandermark is an American jazz composer and saxophone and clarinet player.A fixture on the Chicago-area music scene since the 1990s, Vandermark has earned wide critical praise for his playing and his multilayered compositions, which typically balance intricate orchestration with passionate...

     – saxophones on Igneo and Radiale
  • Buzz Osborne
    Buzz Osborne
    Roger "Buzz" Osborne , also known as King Buzzo, is the guitarist/vocalist/songwriter and technically the only remaining founding member of the Melvins...

     - on Carboniferous
  • Balazs Pandi
    Balázs Pándi
    Balázs Pándi is a Hungarian drummer. He worked and toured with various acts from all around the world including Venetian Snares, Otto Von Schirach , Last Step, To Live and Shave in L.A., The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, Chief Rebel Angel , the Taktika. He also drummed for Blood Of Heroes...

     - drums on 2011 tour

Discography

  • Bromio (Wide/Southern
    Southern Records
    Southern Records is an independent record label closely associated with Crass Records, Corpus Christi Records and Dischord Records. It is based in London and previously had offices in Chicago , Le Havre and Berlin .Southern was originally a recording studio owned and operated by John Loder...

    , 1999)
  • Zu Side of Eugene Chadbourne (Felmay, 2000)
  • Motorhellington (2001)
  • Igneo (Red Note/Amanita/Wide/Wallace, 2002)
  • Live in Hellsinki (2003)
  • Radiale (Atavistic
    Atavistic Records
    Atavistic Records is an American rock and jazz record label based in Chicago, Illinois, known particularly for its No Wave and free jazz recordings. It has released albums by Glenn Branca, Nels Cline, Lydia Lunch, Peter Brötzmann, various Ken Vandermark projects, Pinetop Seven, Swans, Elliott...

    , 2004)
  • The Way of the Animal Powers (Xeng, 2005)
  • How to Raise an Ox featuring Mats Gustafsson
    Mats Gustafsson
    Mats Olof Gustafsson is a Swedish saxophone player and a stalwart on the Scandinavian free jazz scene. He is known for his tonal belligerence and intensity when improvising....

     (Atavistic/Touch and Go
    Touch and Go Records
    Touch and Go Records is an independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois, USA.After its genesis as a hand-made fanzine in 1979, it grew into one of the key record labels in the American 1980s alternative and underground rock scenes, Touch & Go carved out a reputation for releasing adventurous...

    , 2005)

  • "Spiritual Healing" (Zu vs. Dälek
    Dälek
    dälek is an American experimental hip hop duo from Newark, New Jersey. The group is composed of MC dälek and the Oktopus...

    ) (Wallace, 2005)
  • Rai Sanawachi Koe Wo Hassu (Macaroni, 2006)
  • Zu/Iceburn
    Iceburn
    Iceburn, known later as the Iceburn Collective, was a musical group formed in 1991 in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A., by guitarist/vocalist/composer Gentry Densley, the sole constant member through multiple personnel changes. They were known for their unique style that combined elements of jazz,...

     (split) (2006)
  • Identification with the Enemy: A Key to the Underworld (Atavistic, 2007)
  • Zu/Teatro Degli Orrori (split 10"
    Gramophone record
    A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...

    ) (2007)
  • Zu/Xabier Iriondo/Damo Suzuki
    Damo Suzuki
    , universally known as Damo Suzuki , is a singer best known for his membership in the German krautrock group Can.-Biography:As a teenager, Suzuki spent the late 1960s wandering around Europe, often busking....

     (10", 2008)
  • Carboniferous
    Carboniferous (album)
    Carboniferous is a studio album from the Italian band Zu. It was the group's first album for Ipecac records.-Reception:Initial critical response to Carboniferous was very positive...

     featuring Mike Patton
    Mike Patton
    Michael Allan "Mike" Patton is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and actor, best known as the lead singer of the metal/experimental rock band Faith No More. He has also sung for Mr...

     on Soulympics and Orc and King Buzzo on Chtonian (Ipecac Recordings
    Ipecac Recordings
    Ipecac Recordings is an independent record label based in California. It was founded on April 1, 1999 by Greg Werckman and Mike Patton Ipecac Recordings is an independent record label based in California. It was founded on April 1, 1999 by Greg Werckman (ex-label manager of Alternative Tentacles,...

    , 2009)
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