(Progressive Rock / Heavy Jazz-Rock / Fusion) Czajkowski & Minnemann - West ZooOpolis - 2010, MP3 (tracks), 320 kbps

In 2006 John Czajkowski led his band Hectic Watermelon, featuring Jerry Goodman, on a fiery post-Zappa commando jazz-rock mission with The Great American Road Trip. Now Czajkowski steps it up with drummer phenom Marco Minnemann to engage adventurous listeners in an even more hazardous operation—his new album, West ZooOpolis.
Suggesting the brevity and urgency of fusion special operations communications, the liner notes introduce an odd twist: “Mission Tasking: compose, encrypt and record an album around a 52-minute freely improvised drum performance CODENAME Normalizer 2. No drum edits. All tracks contiguous.” Wrapped in enigmatic and minimalist azure blue album art suggesting high desert Cold War spy intrigue and secret codes, the 20 gapless tracks of West ZooOpolis spin a narrative involving a cast of humorous animal characters set to a kaleidoscope of colors emitting intense Ralph Stedman and Hunter Thompson psychic danger. This album is a decidedly Americana fusion that weaves together all that is good in highly technical progressive jazz-rock with Czajkowski’s array of classic electric guitar tones and a squadron of his banjos, lap guitars, baritones, acoustic guitars, and pedal steel.
New York downtown composer, Scott Johnson, remarks, “John Czajkowski is a monster guitarist with a metal carapace and a creamy jazz center, sprouting hydra heads of classical picking, insinuating slide, and a particularly funky banjo. He leads us on a tour of the American landscape and all the music that grows here.”
http://www.myspace.com/johnczajkowski
http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_4118094#!/johnczajkowski
http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=5623

John Czajkowski (Guitars, Banjos, Lap and Pedal Steel, Keyboards, etc.)
Marco Minnemann (Drums)
Special guests: Kevin Freeby (Bass)
Chris Taylor (Guitar, Keys - 4 & 10)