Zu is an Italian

instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...

band from

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. While their line-up of baritone sax, bass guitar and drums is typical of a

jazz band A jazz band (jazz ensemble or jazz combo) is a musical ensemble that plays jazz music. Jazz bands vary in the quantity of its members and the style of jazz that they play but it is common to find a jazz band made up of a rhythm section and a ho ...

, their hard-driving sound is indebted to

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

and according to

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

"defies easy categorization". Zu have collaborated with a wide variety of musicians and been described as "masters at adapting to their guests' musical backgrounds".

History

Hailing from Ostia (a town near Rome), Zu are an atypical trio consisting of drums, bass,

baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone (sometimes abbreviated to "bari sax") is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass saxophone, bass. It is the lowe ...

and electronics. Formed in Rome in 1997, they began as composers and performers for theater productions. The band is composed of three members: Luca Mai on baritone saxophone, Massimo Pupillo on bass and Jacopo Battaglia on drums. Zu have released fourteen albums, including two live albums and two splits. They have played at festivals in Europe, America, Asia and Africa. In 2006, the band toured with the super group

Fantômas Fantômas () is a fictional character created by French writers Marcel Allain (1885–1969) and Pierre Souvestre (1874–1914). One of the most popular characters in the history of French crime fiction, Fantômas was created in 1911 and appeared ...

Melvins Melvins (sometimes the Melvins) are an American rock band formed in 1983 in Montesano, Washington. Their early work was key to the development of both grunge and sludge metal. Primarily a trio, they have also performed as a quartet, with eith ...

Big Band. The members are also active in the Italian

folk-jazz Folk jazz is a musical style that combines traditional folk music with elements of jazz, usually featuring richly texturized songs. Its origins can be traced back to the 1950s, when artists like Jimmy Giuffre and Tony Scott pursued distinct appro ...

group Ardecore.

Style

Zu's music is instrumental and features virtuosic drumming, powerful bass and distorted saxophone. Many of the band's albums are billed as collaborations with a guest musician (such as

Mike Patton Michael Allan Patton (born January 27, 1968) is an American singer, songwriter, producer, and voice actor, best known as the lead vocalist of the rock bands Faith No More and Mr. Bungle. He has also fronted and/or played with Tomahawk, The ...

Buzz Osborne Roger "Buzz" Osborne (born March 25, 1964), also known as King Buzzo, is an American guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and golfer. He is a founding member of the rock band Melvins, as well as Fantômas (band), Fantômas and Venomous Concept. Biog ...

Mats Gustafsson Mats Olof Gustafsson (born 29 October 1964) is a Swedish free jazz saxophone player. Career Gustafsson came to the attention of lovers of improvised music as part of a duo with Christian Munthe (started in 1986), as member of Gunter Chris ...

and

Nobukazu Takemura Nobukazu Takemura (竹村延和 ''Takemura Nobukazu''; born August 28, 1968, in Hirakata, Osaka) is a Japanese musician and artist. He became interested in music at a young age by listening to the radio, and began to make music at home with a t ...

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

Reception

John Zorn John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conducting, conductor, saxophonist, arrangement, arranger and record producer, producer who "deliberately resists category". His Avant-garde music, avant-garde and experimental music, ex ...

described the band as creating "a powerful and expressive music that totally blows away what most bands do these days". In 2009, ''

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a Geologic time scale, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era that spans 60 million years, from the end of the Devonian Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the ...

'' was voted Album of the Year in ''

Rock-A-Rolla ''Rock-A-Rolla'' was a music magazine covering experimental, avant-garde, noise and metal artists pushing the boundaries of music. Launched in late 2005, it was published bi-monthly in the UK by V-Squared Publishing Limited and distributed worl ...

'' magazine's Best of 2009 poll.

Personnel

*Luca T. Mai –

*Jacopo Battaglia – drums *Massimo Pupillo – bass *Stefano Pilia – guitar

Ex-members

Gabe Serbian Gabriel Serbian (May 1, 1977 – April 30, 2022) was an American drummer and guitarist, most famous for his work in The Locust, Cattle Decapitation, Holy Molar and Zu. He was also a member of Head Wound City, a hardcore/punk rock supergrou ...

– drums *Tomas Järmyr – drums

Major collaborators

Eugene Chadbourne Eugene Chadbourne (born January 4, 1954) is an American banjoist, guitarist and music critic. Life and career Chadbourne was born in Mount Vernon, New York, Mount Vernon, New York, but grew up in Boulder, Colorado. He started playing guitar wh ...

– guitar on ''

The Zu Side of the Chadbourne ''The Zu Side Of The Chadbourne'' is the second album by the Italian band Zu, featuring Roy Paci on trumpet and Eugene Chadbourne on guitar. The titles of the songs are obvious parodies of famous rock songs like Lucy in the sky with diamonds o ...

'' and ''

Motorhellington Motorhellington is the third album by the Italian band Zu, which appear in Roy Paci on trumpet and backing vocals and Eugene Chadbourne Eugene Chadbourne (born January 4, 1954) is an American banjoist, guitarist and music critic. Life and ...

'' *

Jeb Bishop Jeb Bishop (born 1962) is an American jazz trombone player. Biography Bishop grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, and attended Jesse O. Sanderson High School. He has studied music (classical trombone performance) at Northwestern Universit ...

–

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

on ''

Igneo Igneo is the fourth album by Italian band Zu, involving Ken Vandermark on sax, Jeb Bishop on trombone, Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello and Jacopo Battaglia on drums . The record was produced by Steve Albini Steven Frank Albini (; July 22, 196 ...

'' *

–

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

s on '' How to Raise an Ox'' *

Xabier Iriondo Xabier Iriondo (Milan, 9 February 1971) is an Italian guitarist. He was born in Isola neighborhood in Milan in 1971, Basque father and Italian mother. At the age of 17 he started to play the guitar. This passion for the strings still accompanie ...

– on '' Zu / Iceburn'' *

Fred Lonberg-Holm Fred Lonberg-Holm (born 1 October 1962) is an American cellist based in Chicago. He moved from New York City to Chicago in 1995. He refers to himself as the anti-cellist. Lonberg-Holm is most identified with playing free improvisation and free j ...

–

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

on ''

The Way of the Animal Powers The Way of the Animal Powers is the sixth studio album by Italian band Zu, released in 2005, within the collaboration of Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello. Originally released 2004 as a three band split CD Eccentrics, Issue #1 (Hinterlandt/Zu/Can Can H ...

'' *

–

electronics Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other electrically charged particles. It is a subfield of physics and ...

on ''Identification with the Enemy – A Key to the Underworld'' * Spaceways inc. – on ''

Radiale ''Radiale'' is the fifth studio album by Italian band Zu, in collaboration with Spaceways Inc., released in 2004.http://www.sentireascoltare.com/recensione/4741/zu-radiale.html The album received an A grade from The Village Voice and was pl ...

'' *

–

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

on some live dates and ''

'' *

Ken Vandermark Ken Vandermark (born September 22, 1964) is an American composer, saxophonist, and clarinetist. A fixture on the Chicago-area music scene since the 1990s, Vandermark has earned wide critical praise for his playing and his multilayered composit ...

– saxophones on ''

'' and ''

'' *

– on ''Carboniferous'' *

Balázs Pándi Balázs Pándi (born 6 August 1983) is a Hungarian drummer and journalist. He has worked and toured with various acts from all around the world including Venetian Snares, Otto von Schirach, To Live and Shave in L.A., The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz ...

– drums on 2011 tour * Eugene Robinson – vocals on ''The Left Hand Path'' *

David Tibet David Tibet (born David Michael Bunting; 5 March 1960) is an English poet, artist and musician. He is best known for the musical group Current 93, which he founded and is the only consistent member of, along with his contributions to the b ...

– vocals on ''Mirror Emperor'' *

Damo Suzuki , known as Damo Suzuki (ダモ鈴木), was a Japanese musician best known as the vocalist for the German Krautrock group Can (band), Can between 1970 and 1973. Born in 1950 in Kobe, Japan, he moved to Europe in the late 1960s where he was spotte ...

– vocals on some live dates *Okapi – electronics on ''Zu / Dalek / Okapi ''and on some live dates

Discography

* 1999: ''

Bromio ''Bromio'' is the first album by the Italian experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic ...

'' * 2000: ''

'' * 2001: ''

'' * 2002: ''

'' * 2003: '' Live in Helsinki'' * 2004: ''

'' * 2004: ''Eccentrics, Issue #1'' Hinterlandt / Zu / Can Can Heads * 2005: ''

'' * 2005: '' How to Raise an Ox'' * 2005: '' Zu/Dälek'' feat Økapi * 2006: ''Rai Sanawachi Koe Wo Hassu'' * 2006: '' Zu / Iceburn – PhonoMetak 10" Series No. 1'' * 2007: '' Identification with the Enemy: A Key to the Underworld'' * 2008: '' Il Teatro degli Orrori/Zu'' * 2008: ''Zu/Xabier Iriondo/Damo Suzuki – PhonoMetak 10" Series No. 4'' * 2009: ''

'' * 2014: ''Goodnight Civilization'' EP * 2014: Zu & Eugene Robinson – ''The Left Hand Path'' * 2015: ''Cortar Todo'' * 2017: ''Jhator'' * 2018: ''ZU93 Mirror Emperor'' * 2019: ''Terminalia Amazonia''

Singles and music videos

* "Carbon" (2009) * "Soulympics" (2009) * "Goodnight, Civilization" (2014) * "Cortar Todo" (2015)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zu Italian progressive rock groups Free improvisation ensembles Avant-garde metal musical groups Musical groups established in 1999 Musical groups from Rome Ipecac Recordings artists 1999 establishments in Italy