News for Lulu

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

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".[1]

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".[2] 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".[3]

Andrew Jones compared the unusual sax-guitar-trombone lineup to a group led by Jimmy Giuffre in the late 1950s, featuring the leader's sax and clarinets alongside valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer and guitarist Jim Hall (see, e.g., Western Suite). Like Giuffre's group, Zorn's band for the Lulu sessions had no traditional rhythm section (drums, piano and/or bass), and as a result the three musicians found themselves sliding in and out of soloing and supporting roles depending on the song and arrangements, occasionally veering into experimental territory but mostly swinging and staying rooted in blues.[4]

• Tracks 1-17 recorded at Soundville Recording Studio Lucerne on August 28, 1987. Tracks 18-20 recorded live at Jazzfestival Willisau on August 30, 1987.

• John Zorn: alto saxophone
• George Lewis: trombone
• Bill Frisell: guitar