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Wikipedia

John Zorn

January 26, 2023

John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conductor, saxophonist, arranger and producer who "deliberately resists category".[1] Zorn's avant-garde and experimental approaches to composition and improvisation are inclusive of jazz, rock, hardcore, classical, contemporary, surf, metal, soundtrack, ambient, and world music.[1][2]

John Zorn
Zorn at the Newport Jazz Festival, 2014
Background information
Born (1953-09-02) September 2, 1953 (age 69)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Genres
Occupation(s)Musician, composer, producer
Instrument(s)Alto saxophone, pipe organ, clarinet, flute, keyboards, vocals, guitar, double bass, drums, percussion, theremin, wind machine
Years active1973–present
LabelsTzadik, Avant, DIW, Elektra Nonesuch, Earache, Hathut, Shimmy-Disc, Eva, Toy's Factory, Nato, Lumina, Black Saint, Subharmonic, Parachute, Yukon, Rift
Websitewww.tzadik.com

In 2013, Down Beat described Zorn as "one of our most important composers" and in 2020 Rolling Stone noted that "[alt]hough Zorn has operated almost entirely outside the mainstream, he's gradually asserted himself as one of the most influential musicians of our time".[3][4]

Zorn entered New York City's downtown music scene in the mid-1970s, collaborating with improvising artists while developing new methods of composing experimental music.[1][2] Over the next decade he performed throughout Europe and Japan and recorded on independent US and European labels.[1] In 1986 he received acclaim with the release of his radical reworking of the film scores of Ennio Morricone, The Big Gundown, followed by Spillane, an album featuring his collage-like experimental compositions.[1][5] Spy vs Spy (1989) and Naked City (1990) both demonstrated Zorn's ability to merge and blend musical styles in new and challenging formats.[1][2][6][7][8]

Zorn spent time in Japan in the late 1980s and early '90s but returned to Lower East Side Manhattan to establish the Tzadik record label in 1995.[9][10][11][12] Tzadik enabled Zorn to establish independence, maintain creative control, and ensure the availability of his growing catalog of recordings. He prolifically recorded and released new material for the label, issuing several new albums each year, along with recordings by many other artists.[13]

Zorn performs on saxophone with Naked City, Painkiller, and Masada, conducts Moonchild, Simulacrum, and several Masada-related ensembles or encourages musicians toward their own interpretations of his work. He has composed concert music for classical ensembles and orchestras, and produced music for opera, sound installations, film and documentary.[4] Tours of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East have been extensive, usually at festivals with musicians and ensembles that perform his repertoire.[14][15][16]

Early life and career

Early life

John Zorn was born in New York City, to a Jewish family, attended the United Nations International School, and studied piano, guitar and flute from an early age.[17][18][19] Zorn's family had diverse musical tastes: his mother, Vera (née Studenski; 1918–1999), listened to classical and world music; his father, Henry Zorn (1913–1992), was interested in jazz, French chansons, and country music; and his older brother collected doo-wop and 1950s rock and roll records.[20] Zorn spent his teenage years exploring classical music, film music, "listening to The Doors and playing bass in a surf band."[4][20] He explored the experimental and avant-garde music of György Ligeti, Mauricio Kagel and Karlheinz Stockhausen as well as cartoon soundtracks and film scores.[4][13][21] Zorn taught himself orchestration and counterpoint by transcribing scores and studied composition under Leonardo Balada.[22]

Zorn began playing saxophone after discovering Anthony Braxton's album For Alto (1969) when he was studying composition at Webster College (now Webster University) in St. Louis, Missouri, where he attended classes taught by Oliver Lake.[23][24] While at Webster, he incorporated elements of free jazz, avant-garde and experimental music, film scores, performance art and the cartoon scores of Carl Stalling into his first recordings.[25]

Leaving Webster after three semesters, Zorn lived on the West Coast before returning to Manhattan where he gave concerts in his apartment and other small NY venues, playing saxophone and a variety of reeds, duck calls, tapes, and other instruments.[1][4][26] Zorn immersed himself in the underground art scene, assisting filmmaker Jack Smith with his performances and attending plays by Richard Foreman.[27]

Early compositions and recordings

Zorn's early major compositions included many game pieces described as "complex systems harnessing improvisers in flexible compositional formats".[28][29] These compositions "involved strict rules, role playing, prompters with flashcards, all in the name of melding structure and improvisation in a seamless fashion".[2] Zorn's early game pieces had sporting titles like Lacrosse (1976), Hockey (1978), Pool (1979), and Archery (1979), which he recorded and first released on Eugene Chadbourne's Parachute label.[30][31] His most enduring game piece is Cobra, composed in 1984 and first recorded in 1987 and in subsequent versions in 1992, 1994 and 2002, and revisited in performance many times.[32][33][34]

In the early 1980s, Zorn was heavily engaged in improvisation as both a solo performer and with other like-minded artists.[2] Zorn's first solo saxophone recordings were originally released in two volumes as The Classic Guide to Strategy in 1983 and 1986 on the Lumina label.[35] Zorn's early small group improvisations are documented on Locus Solus (1983) which featured Zorn with various combinations of other improvisers including Christian Marclay, Arto Lindsay, Wayne Horvitz, Ikue Mori, and Anton Fier.[36] Ganryu Island featured a series of duets by Zorn with Michihiro Sato on shamisen, which received limited release on the Yukon label in 1984.[37] Zorn has subsequently reissued these early recordings.[38]

 
Zorn in 1990

Breakthrough recordings

Zorn's breakthrough recording was 1985's widely acclaimed The Big Gundown released on Nonesuch Records, where Zorn offered radical arrangements of Ennio Morricone's music for film.[39] The album was endorsed by Morricone himself, who said: "This is a record that has fresh, good and intelligent ideas. It is realization on a high level, a work done by a maestro with great science-fantasy and creativity ... Many people have done versions of my pieces, but no one has done them like this".[40]

Zorn followed with another major-label release Spillane in 1987 featuring compositions performed by Albert Collins, the Kronos Quartet, along with the title track, an early "file-card" composition.[41] This method of combining composition and improvisation involved Zorn writing descriptions or ideas on file-cards and arranging them to form the piece.[42] Zorn described the process in 2003:

I write in moments, in disparate sound blocks, so I find it convenient to store these events on filing cards so they can be sorted and ordered with minimum effort. Pacing is essential. If you move too fast, people tend to stop hearing the individual moments as complete in themselves and more as elements of a sort of cloud effect ... I worked 10 to 12 hours a day for a week, just orchestrating these file cards. It was an intense process.[43]

Zorn's file-card method of organizing sound blocks into an overall structure largely depended on the musicians he chose, the way they interpreted what was written on the file cards, and their relationship with Zorn. "I'm not going to sit in some ivory tower and pass my scores down to the players." said Zorn,

I have to be there with them, and that's why I started playing saxophone, so that I could meet musicians. I still feel that I have to earn a player's trust before they can play my music. At the end of the day, I want players to say: this was fun—it was a lot of fucking work, and it's one of the hardest things I've ever done, but it was worth the effort.[43]

Three further releases on Nonesuch followed; Spy vs Spy in 1989, Naked City in 1990, and Filmworks 1986–1990 (1992) before Zorn broke with the label.[2]

Music

All the various styles are organically connected to one another. I'm an additive person—the entire storehouse of my knowledge informs everything I do. People are so obsessed with the surface that they can't see the connections, but they are there.

—John Zorn[43]

Jazz

Zorn demonstrated his hard bop credentials as a member of the Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet, recording Voodoo in 1986.[44] News for Lulu (1988) and More News for Lulu (1992) featured Zorn, Bill Frisell and George E. Lewis performing compositions by Clark, Kenny Dorham, Freddie Redd, and Hank Mobley.[45][46] He recorded Spy vs Spy featuring hardcore punk versions of Ornette Coleman's compositions in 1989.[4][47][48] According to Cook, "Zorn's admirers often consider him a masterful bebop alto player, but when he does perform in something approaching that style his playing has little of the tension and none of the relaxation of the great beboppers, often sounding more strangulated than anything".[1]

Film music

Zorn stated that "After my record The Big Gundown came out I was convinced that a lot of soundtrack work was going to be coming my way".[49] While interest from Hollywood was not forthcoming, eventually independent filmmakers like Sheila McLaughlin and Raúl Ruiz sought his talents.[50] Filmmaker Walter Hill rejected his music for a film to be called Looters.[51] Although Zorn's score did not make the final cut he used the money he received to establish the record label, Tzadik, on which he released Filmworks II: Music for an Untitled Film by Walter Hill in 1995.[52] Zorn also produced a series of commercial soundtracks for the advertising firm Wieden+Kennedy, including one directed by Jean-Luc Godard, a long-term Zorn inspiration.[53] Zorn used his film commissions to record new ensembles like Masada and the Masada String Trio. From the mid-1990s, Zorn composed film music for independent films dealing with BDSM and LGBT culture, documentaries exploring the Jewish experience, and films about outsider artists. In 2013, after releasing 25 volumes in his Filmworks Series, Zorn announced that he would no longer be releasing music for film.[54]

Hardcore: Naked City, Painkiller and beyond

Zorn established Naked City in 1988 as a "compositional workshop" to test the limitations of a rock band format.[55] Featuring Zorn (saxophone), Bill Frisell (guitars), Fred Frith (bass), Wayne Horvitz (keyboards), Joey Baron (drums), and vocalist Yamatsuka Eye (and later Mike Patton), Naked City blended Zorn's appreciation of hardcore punk and grindcore bands like Agnostic Front and Napalm Death with influences like film music, country or jazz often in a single composition.[56] The band performed pieces by film composers Ennio Morricone, John Barry, Johnny Mandel and Henry Mancini and modern classicists Alexander Scriabin, Claude Debussy, Charles Ives, and Olivier Messiaen and recorded heavy metal and ambient albums.

In 1991, Zorn formed Painkiller with Bill Laswell on bass and Mick Harris on drums.[57] Painkiller's first two releases, Guts of a Virgin (1991) and Buried Secrets (1992), also featured short grindcore and free jazz-inspired compositions.[58] They released their first live album, Rituals: Live in Japan, in 1993, followed by the double CD Execution Ground (1994), which featured longer dub and ambient-styled pieces.[59] A second live album, Talisman: Live in Nagoya, was released in 2002 and the band was featured on Zorn's 50th Birthday Celebration Volume 12 (2005) with Hamid Drake replacing Harris on drums and guest vocalist Mike Patton.[60]

Both bands attracted worldwide interest, particularly in Japan, where Zorn had relocated following a three-month residency in Tokyo.[61]

 
Moonchild at the Barbican: Mike Patton (facing away) and Trevor Dunn

In 2006, Zorn formed the voice/bass/drums trio of Mike Patton, Trevor Dunn, and Joey Baron as “a compositional challenge, as a song cycle, songs without words” as he decided “I want to work with Patton more; Patton was very hungry to do more work together. ‘OK, so let's start it with just bass, drums, and voice".[4][62] Rolling Stone said Moonchild was "a band that, much like Naked City, mutated radically across its lifespan as Zorn kept raising his compositional bar. While it touched on similar extremes as that group... its episodes are more sustained, its structures more conventionally songlike" noting "For the first five of Moonchild's seven albums, released from 2006 through 2014, Patton utilized his full whisper-to-scream range while operating entirely without lyrics".[4]

Concert music

As Zorn's interest in Naked City waned, he "started hearing classical music in [his] head again."[63] Zorn started working on compositions that drew on chamber music arrangements of strings, percussion and electronic instruments. Elegy, a suite dedicated to Jean Genet, was released in 1992.[64] This was followed by the piece Kristallnacht recorded in November 1992, his premiere work of radical Jewish culture, featuring seven compositions reflecting the Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass") in late 1938 where Jews were targets of violence and destruction in Germany and Austria.[65][66]

The establishment of Tzadik allowed him to release many compositions which he had written over the previous two decades for classical ensembles. Zorn's earliest released classical composition, Christabel (1972) for five flutes, first appeared on Angelus Novus in 1998.[67] Zorn credits the composition of his 1988 string quartet Cat O' Nine Tails (commissioned and released by the Kronos Quartet on Short Stories) to awakening him to the possibilities of writing for classical musicians. This composition also appeared on The String Quartets (1999) and Cartoon S/M (2000) along with variations on "Kol Nidre", inspired by the Jewish prayer of atonement which was written at the same time as the first Masada Book.[68]

Aporias: Requia for Piano and Orchestra (1998) was Zorn's first full-scale orchestral release featuring pianist Stephen Drury, the Hungarian Radio Children's Choir and the American Composers Orchestra conducted by Dennis Russell Davies.[69]

Much of Zorn's classical work is dedicated or inspired by artists who have influenced him:

Several of Zorn's later concert works drew inspiration from mysticism and the works of Aleister Crowley in particular; Magick (2004) featured a group called the Crowley Quartet.[74] A 2009 performance of the album's centerpiece Necronomicon was described as "... frenetic vortexes of violent, abrasive motion, separated by eerily becalmed, suspenseful sections with moody, even prayerful melodies. The music is sensational and evocative, but never arbitrary; you always sense a guiding hand behind the mayhem".[75]

Later works expanded to include vocal and operatic works; Mysterium released in 2005 featured Frammenti del Sappho for female chorus;[76] Rituals (2005) featured Zorn's opera composed for the Bayreuth Opera Festival in 1998;[77] and La Machine de l'Être composed in 2000, premiered at the New York City Opera in 2011, and recorded for the 2012 album Music and Its Double.[78][79]

Zorn's concert works have been performed all over the world and he has received commissions from the New York Philharmonic, Brooklyn Philharmonic and BBC Radio 3.[80][81]

Masada books

Book One

 
Masada: Joey Baron (drums), Greg Cohen (bass), Dave Douglas (trumpet), John Zorn (alto saxophone)

The experience of composing Kristallnacht prompted Zorn to explore his Jewish heritage and examine methods of composing using the Phrygian dominant scale.[82][83] Zorn set himself the task of writing 100 compositions within a year.[84]

In 1993 Zorn engaged Dave Douglas (trumpet), Greg Cohen (double bass), and Joey Baron (drums) to provide musical cues for Joe Chappelle's first film Thieves Quartet (later collected on Filmworks III: 1990–1995) and established them as Masada to perform his recent compositions using the instrumental lineup and improvisational approach of Ornette Coleman's pioneering free jazz quartet.[85][86]

Within three years, the number of compositions had grown to 205 and became known as the first Masada Book. Zorn explained:

The project for Masada was to create something positive in the Jewish tradition something that maybe takes the idea of Jewish music into the 21st century the way jazz developed from the teens and 1920s into the '40s, the '50s, the '60s and on ... My initial idea was to write a hundred tunes. And then I ended up writing over 200 for the first book and then performed it countless time for years.[87]

In 1996, Zorn released Bar Kokhba featuring Masada compositions recorded by a rotating group of musicians.[88] Two ensembles arose from this album: the Masada String Trio, composed of Greg Cohen (bass), Mark Feldman (violin), and Erik Friedlander (cello); and the Bar Kokhba Sextet which added Marc Ribot (guitar), Cyro Baptista (percussion), and Joey Baron (drums), both of which were featured on 1998's The Circle Maker.[89] The Masada String Trio were also featured on Zorn's Filmworks series, as part of his 50th Birthday Celebration, and released two albums as part of the Book of Angels project, Azazal and Haborym.[90][91][92][93] In 2003, Zorn formed Electric Masada, a band featuring Zorn, Baptista, Baron, and Ribot, along with Trevor Dunn (bass), Ikue Mori (electronics), Jamie Saft (keyboards), and Kenny Wollesen (drums) releasing their debut live album from Zorn's 50th Birthday Concert series and a double live CD recorded in 2004.[94] In 2019, Zorn formed the New Masada Quartet with Julian Lage (guitar), Jorge Roeder (bass), and Kenny Wollesen (drums).[95]

A Tenth Anniversary Series of Masada recordings was released by Zorn beginning in 2003. The series featured five albums of Masada themes including Masada Guitars by Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell, and Tim Sparks; Masada Recital by Mark Feldman and Sylvie Courvoisier; Masada Rock by Rashanim; and two albums featuring various artists, Voices in the Wilderness and The Unknown Masada.[38]

 
Bar Kokhba at 2014 Newport Jazz Festival with Marc Ribot, John Zorn, Cyro Baptista (left to right)

Book Two

In 2004, Zorn began composing the second Masada Book, The Book of Angels, resulting in an additional 316 compositions.[96][97] Zorn explained:

After 10 years of performing the first book, I thought "Maybe it'd be nice to write some more tunes." And I wrote 300 more tunes. When I started writing those it was "Let's see if I can write a hundred songs in a month this time." I've been working on these scales and playing these tunes all this time. In the back of my head somewhere are lodged all kinds of new ideas. Let's see if I can come up with 100 tunes in a month instead of in a year. So in the first month, I popped out a hundred tunes; the second month, another hundred; in the third month, a third 100 tunes. I had no idea that was going to happen.[87]

Zorn released thirty-two volumes of Masada Book Two compositions performed by many varied artists.[98][99] The titles of many Masada Book Two compositions are derived from demonology and Judeo-Christian mythology.

The Masada quartet performed at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in March 2007 for what were billed as their final concerts.[100] Zorn reformed the band as a sextet with Uri Caine and Cyro Baptista in 2009 saying:[101]

I felt like we kind of hit a plateau a little bit with it in 2007 and I said, "Well, maybe the quartet is really done. Maybe we've accomplished what we can accomplish. Maybe it's time to put this to bed." And then I was asked by the Marciac Jazz Festival to put together a slightly larger group. They asked me what if I added a couple of people to Masada and I said, "I can't add anybody to the quartet. The quartet is the quartet, that's what we do." But then I thought, "Well, if I was going to add someone I would probably ask Uri and Cyro." So we tried it at Marciac and it was unbelievable. We didn't even have any rehearsal time. I just passed the charts out and said, "OK, just watch me because I'll be conducting. Let's just do it." And it was one of those magical clicks on the bandstand that sometimes happens. So yeah, this band is taking off again. After 15 years of doing this music, we can still find new things.

Zorn's Masada compositions and associated ensembles have become a central focus of many concerts and festivals and he has established regular 'Masada Marathons' that feature various bands and musicians performing music from the Masada Books.[96][102]

Book Three

Zorn completed the third Masada book, titled The Book Beriah, in 2014.[103]

The Dreamers

Zorn released one of his most popular albums, The Gift, in 2001, which surprised many with its relaxed blend of surf, exotica and world music.[104] On February 29, 2008, at St Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, Zorn premiered The Dreamers, which saw a return to the gentle compositions first featured on The Gift and established the band of the same name.[105] The Dreamers released their second album, O'o, in 2009, an album of Zorn's Book of Angels compositions in 2010 and a Christmas album in 2011.[106][107][108]

Other work

 
Zorn with Gavin Bryars and George E. Lewis at the Barbican Tribute to Derek Bailey, 2006.

Tzadik Records

In 1992, John Zorn curated the Avant subsidiary of the DIW label and released several Naked City recordings on the label as well as many other albums featuring Zorn affiliated musicians including Derek Bailey, Buckethead, Eugene Chadbourne, Dave Douglas, Erik Friedlander, Wayne Horvitz, Ikue Mori, Bobby Previte, Zeena Parkins and Marc Ribot.[109]

In 1995, in co-operation with jazz producer Kazunori Sugiyama, Zorn established the Tzadik record label to ensure the availability of his catalogue and promote other musicians.[61][101]

The label's releases are divided into series:

  • The Archival Series features Zorn's recordings exclusively, including re-releases of several albums that appeared on other labels, Zorn's film work, and recordings from 1973 onwards;
  • The 50th Birthday Celebration Series is 11 live albums recorded in September 2003 at Tonic as part of the month-long concert retrospective of Zorn's work;
  • The Composer Series features Zorn's music for "classical" ensembles along with work by many other contemporary composers;
  • The Radical Jewish Culture Series features contemporary Jewish musicians;
  • The New Japan Series covers Japanese underground music;
  • The Film Music Series features soundtracks by other musicians (Zorn's Filmworks recordings are featured in the Archival Series);
  • The Oracle Series promotes women in experimental music;
  • The Key Series presents notable avant-garde musicians and projects;
  • The Lunatic Fringe Series releases music and musicians operating outside of the broad categories offered by other series; and
  • The Spotlight Series promotes new bands and musical projects of young musicians.[110]

Tzadik also releases special-edition CDs, DVDs, books and T-shirts. Since 1998, the designs of Tzadik releases have been created by graphic artist Heung-Heung "Chippy" Chin.[111]

The Stone (music venue)

Zorn's earliest New York performances occurred at small artist-run performance spaces including his own apartment.[2] As his profile grew, he became associated with several Lower East Side alternative venues such as the Knitting Factory and Tonic.[87] On Friday April 13, 2007, Zorn played the final night at Tonic before it closed due to financial pressures.[112][113][114]

Zorn was the principal force in establishing The Stone in 2005, an avant-garde performance space in New York's Alphabet City which supports itself solely on donations and the sale of limited-edition CDs, giving all door revenues directly to the performers.[115] Zorn holds the title of artistic director and regularly performs 'Improvisation Nights'.[116] Zorn feels that "The Stone is a unique space and is different from Tonic, the Knitting Factory, and most of the other venues we have played at as there is no bar ... so there is NO pressure to pack the house with an audience that drinks, and what night you perform has nothing to do with your power to draw a crowd or what kind of music you might play".[117] On January 10, 2008, Zorn performed with Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson at a special benefit night at The Stone which was also released on The Stone: Issue Three on CD.[118] In December 2016 Zorn announced that The Stone would close in February 2018 but that he was hopeful that a new location could be found, stating "Venues come and go, but the music continues on forever!"[119] By March 2017 Zorn had negotiated with The New School to move The Stone to Greenwich Village.[120] On February 25, 2018, the last performance was held at the original venue and Zorn moved operations to The New School's The Glass Box Theatre on the basis of a handshake deal.[121]

50th and 60th birthday concert series

In September 2003, Zorn celebrated his 50th birthday with a month-long series of performances at Tonic in New York, repeating an event he had begun a decade earlier at the Knitting Factory.[122][123][124] He conceptualized the month into several different aspects of his musical output. Zorn's bands performed on the weekends, classical ensembles were featured on Sundays, Zorn performed improvisations with other musicians on Mondays, featured his extended compositions on Tuesdays and a retrospective of game pieces on Wednesdays.[125] A total of 12 live albums were released on his 50th Birthday Celebration Series.[126]

 
John Zorn performing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in September 2013

Zorn's 60th birthday celebrations encompassed concerts across the globe from festival appearances to unique events in art galleries and unusual venues across 2013 and into 2014.[127] The first concerts under the Zorn@60 banner were performed at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in April 2013.[128] This was followed by performances at the Museum of Modern Art and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.[129][130] The European leg of Zorn@60 commenced at the Barbican Theatre in London in July 2013.[131] Festival appearances in Belgium, Poland, Spain and Germany followed soon after.[132][133][134][135][136] These were followed by concerts in Victoriaville, Canada.[137] Returning to New York City other concert appearances occurred at Alice Tully Hall and Lincoln Centre.[138][139]

Zorn undertook another of his celebrated Masada Marathons at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in August.[140] Further New York City concerts in September included performances of music for film at the Anthology Film Archives, classical works and Cobra at the Miller Theatre, a day-long concert at the Metropolitan Museum of Art[141] and a performance of improvised duets with Ryuichi Sakamoto.[142][143][144] In October, the International Contemporary Ensemble performed a retrospective of Zorn's classical music at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.[145] The final Zorn@60 concerts were performed as part of the Adelaide Festival in Australia in March 2014 featuring a four concerts covering the breadth of his compositional and improvisational range.[146][147]

Arcana (book series)

In 2000, Zorn edited the book Arcana: Musicians on Music featuring interviews, essays, and commentaries by musicians including Anthony Coleman, Peter Garland, David Mahler, Bill Frisell, Gerry Hemingway, George E. Lewis, Fred Frith, Eyvind Kang, Mike Patton and Elliott Sharp, on the compositional process.[148] Zorn released the second volume of Arcana: Musicians on Music in the summer of 2007. According to the preface by Zorn, "This second installment of what will be a continuing series of books presenting radical, cutting-edge ideas about music is made, like the initial volume, out of necessity."[149] New volumes have since been released; the eighth volume was published in September 2017.

In other media

Zorn also appeared on the 1985 Henry Hills film Money about the financial struggles of Manhattan avant garde artists during the age of Reaganism.[150]

Awards

In 2001, John Zorn received the Jewish Cultural Award in Performing Arts from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture.[151] In 2006, Zorn was named a MacArthur Fellow.[152][153] In 2007, he was the recipient of Columbia University's School of the Arts William Schuman Award, an honor given "to recognize the lifetime achievement of an American composer whose works have been widely performed and generally acknowledged to be of lasting significance."[154]

In 2011, Zorn was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame by Lou Reed, and was awarded the Magister Artium Gandensis, an honorary degree from the University of Ghent.[155] In 2014, he received honorary doctorates from The State University of New York and the New England Conservatory of Music.[156][157][158]

Discography

Main article: John Zorn discography

Filmography

  • Money (1985), a "manic collage film" by Henry Hills on "the early days of "language poetry" and the downtown improvised music scene."[159]
  • Put More Blood Into the Music (1987), documentary by George Atlas on New York avant garde music, aired Sunday March 12, 1989, as episode 292 of The South Bank Show.
  • Step Across the Border (1990), documentary on Fred Frith.
  • A Bookshelf on Top of the Sky: 12 Stories About John Zorn (Tzadik, 2004), film portrait by Claudia Heuermann.
  • Masada Live at Tonic 1999 (2004), concert film.
  • Celestial Subway Lines / Salvaging Noise (2005), experimental documentary by Ken Jacobs with soundtrack by Zorn and Ikue Mori.
  • Sabbath in Paradise (Tzadik, 2007), documentary by Claudia Heuermann on Jewish musical culture in New York's avant garde Jazz scene in the 1990s.
  • Astronome: A Night at the Opera (2010), an opera by Richard Foreman, music by John Zorn.

Bibliography

  • Zorn, John (editor). Arcana: Musicians on Music. Hips Road: New York 2000, ISBN 1-887123-27-X.
  • Zorn, John (editor). Arcana II: Musicians on Music. Hips Road/Tzadik: New York 2007, ISBN 0-9788337-6-7.
  • Zorn, John (editor). Arcana III: Musicians on Music. Hips Road/Tzadik: New York 2008, ISBN 0-9788337-7-5.
  • Zorn, John (editor). Arcana IV: Musicians on Music. Hips Road/Tzadik: New York 2009, ISBN 0-9788337-8-3.
  • Zorn, John (editor). Arcana V: Musicians on Music, Magic & Mysticism. Hips Road/Tzadik: New York 2010, ISBN 0-9788337-9-1.
  • Zorn, John (editor). Arcana VI: Musicians on Music. Hips Road/Tzadik: New York 2012, ISBN 0-9788337-5-9.
  • Zorn, John (editor). Arcana VII: Musicians on Music. Hips Road/Tzadik: New York 2014, ISBN 0-9788337-4-0.
  • Zorn, John (editor). Arcana VIII: Musicians on Music. Hips Road/Tzadik: New York 2017, ISBN 0-9788337-3-2.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Cook, Richard (2005). Richard Cook's Jazz Encyclopedia. London: Penguin Books. pp. 685–6. ISBN 0-141-00646-3.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Milkowski, B., "John Zorn: One Future, Two Views" (interview) in Jazz Times, March 2000, pp. 28–35,118–121; accessed July 24, 2010.
  3. ^ Alkyer, F. First Take: Happy Birthday Mr Zorn, Down Beat, October, 2013, pg. 10.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Steamer, H., ‘He Made the World Bigger’: Inside John Zorn's Jazz-Metal Multiverse, Rolling Stone, June 22, 2020.
  5. ^ Rockwell, J., Zorn Variations on Themes by Morricone, NY Times, November 2, 1986.
  6. ^ Watrous, P., "Spillane", a Blend of American Styles, NY Times, May 25, 1988.
  7. ^ Rockwell, J., As Important As Anyone In His Generation, NY Times, February 21, 1988.
  8. ^ Pareles, J., "There Are 8 Million Stories in John Zorn's Naked City', NY Times, April 8, 1990.
  9. ^ Burma, M., John Zorn Interview, Browbeat, Issue 1, 1993
  10. ^ Watrous, P., John Zorn Takes Over the Town, NY Times, February 24, 1989.
  11. ^ Fordham, J. (1993), The Essential Guide to Jazz on CD, Greenwich Editions: London.
  12. ^ Liner notes to Nani Nani (1995), Tzadik: New York.
  13. ^ a b Gordon, T., (2008), John Zorn: Autonomy and the Avant-Garde; accessed November 15, 2013.
  14. ^ John Zorn Festival in Israel 2008 website 2008-05-08 at the Wayback Machine; accessed September 2, 2008.
  15. ^ Kelman, J. Festival International Musique Actuelle Victoriaville Review at All About Jazz, May 15, 2008.
  16. ^ Moore, C. Adelaide Festival 2014: Loud and Proud 2013-10-31 at the Wayback Machine, Limelight, October 29, 2014.
  17. ^ "Milken Archive of Jewish Music – People – John Zorn". milkenarchive.org.
  18. ^ At 60, 'Challenges Are Opportunities' For John Zorn, NPR.org, September 3, 2013.
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Further reading

  • NYTimes feature/interview, 2013
  • John Zorn collected news and commentary at The New York Times

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to John Zorn.
  • Tzadik.com
  • The Stone website
  • Hips Road Edition: Concert music of John Zorn, including score and mp3 samples
  • John Zorn at IMDb
  • Works by or about John Zorn in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
  • Discography of John Zorn by Patrice Roussel (to June 2013)
  • John Zorn interview (Hungarian)
  • Brackett, John. John Zorn: Tradition and Transgression. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-253-22025-7.
  • John Zorn Q&A Session
  • John Zorn radio interview by Chris Comer: chriscomerradio.com/john_zorn/john_zorn8-24-1999.htm

January 26, 2023
john, zorn, born, september, 1953, american, composer, conductor, saxophonist, arranger, producer, deliberately, resists, category, zorn, avant, garde, experimental, approaches, composition, improvisation, inclusive, jazz, rock, hardcore, classical, contempora. John Zorn born September 2 1953 is an American composer conductor saxophonist arranger and producer who deliberately resists category 1 Zorn s avant garde and experimental approaches to composition and improvisation are inclusive of jazz rock hardcore classical contemporary surf metal soundtrack ambient and world music 1 2 John ZornZorn at the Newport Jazz Festival 2014Background informationBorn 1953 09 02 September 2 1953 age 69 New York City New York U S GenresAvant gardeexperimentalavant rockjazzgrindcoreavant garde metalOccupation s Musician composer producerInstrument s Alto saxophone pipe organ clarinet flute keyboards vocals guitar double bass drums percussion theremin wind machineYears active1973 presentLabelsTzadik Avant DIW Elektra Nonesuch Earache Hathut Shimmy Disc Eva Toy s Factory Nato Lumina Black Saint Subharmonic Parachute Yukon RiftWebsitewww wbr tzadik wbr com In 2013 Down Beat described Zorn as one of our most important composers and in 2020 Rolling Stone noted that alt hough Zorn has operated almost entirely outside the mainstream he s gradually asserted himself as one of the most influential musicians of our time 3 4 Zorn entered New York City s downtown music scene in the mid 1970s collaborating with improvising artists while developing new methods of composing experimental music 1 2 Over the next decade he performed throughout Europe and Japan and recorded on independent US and European labels 1 In 1986 he received acclaim with the release of his radical reworking of the film scores of Ennio Morricone The Big Gundown followed by Spillane an album featuring his collage like experimental compositions 1 5 Spy vs Spy 1989 and Naked City 1990 both demonstrated Zorn s ability to merge and blend musical styles in new and challenging formats 1 2 6 7 8 Zorn spent time in Japan in the late 1980s and early 90s but returned to Lower East Side Manhattan to establish the Tzadik record label in 1995 9 10 11 12 Tzadik enabled Zorn to establish independence maintain creative control and ensure the availability of his growing catalog of recordings He prolifically recorded and released new material for the label issuing several new albums each year along with recordings by many other artists 13 Zorn performs on saxophone with Naked City Painkiller and Masada conducts Moonchild Simulacrum and several Masada related ensembles or encourages musicians toward their own interpretations of his work He has composed concert music for classical ensembles and orchestras and produced music for opera sound installations film and documentary 4 Tours of Europe Asia and the Middle East have been extensive usually at festivals with musicians and ensembles that perform his repertoire 14 15 16 Contents 1 Early life and career 1 1 Early life 1 2 Early compositions and recordings 1 3 Breakthrough recordings 2 Music 2 1 Jazz 2 2 Film music 2 3 Hardcore Naked City Painkiller and beyond 2 4 Concert music 2 5 Masada books 2 5 1 Book One 2 5 2 Book Two 2 5 3 Book Three 2 6 The Dreamers 3 Other work 3 1 Tzadik Records 3 2 The Stone music venue 3 3 50th and 60th birthday concert series 3 4 Arcana book series 3 5 In other media 4 Awards 5 Discography 6 Filmography 7 Bibliography 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External linksEarly life and career EditEarly life Edit John Zorn was born in New York City to a Jewish family attended the United Nations International School and studied piano guitar and flute from an early age 17 18 19 Zorn s family had diverse musical tastes his mother Vera nee Studenski 1918 1999 listened to classical and world music his father Henry Zorn 1913 1992 was interested in jazz French chansons and country music and his older brother collected doo wop and 1950s rock and roll records 20 Zorn spent his teenage years exploring classical music film music listening to The Doors and playing bass in a surf band 4 20 He explored the experimental and avant garde music of Gyorgy Ligeti Mauricio Kagel and Karlheinz Stockhausen as well as cartoon soundtracks and film scores 4 13 21 Zorn taught himself orchestration and counterpoint by transcribing scores and studied composition under Leonardo Balada 22 Zorn began playing saxophone after discovering Anthony Braxton s album For Alto 1969 when he was studying composition at Webster College now Webster University in St Louis Missouri where he attended classes taught by Oliver Lake 23 24 While at Webster he incorporated elements of free jazz avant garde and experimental music film scores performance art and the cartoon scores of Carl Stalling into his first recordings 25 Leaving Webster after three semesters Zorn lived on the West Coast before returning to Manhattan where he gave concerts in his apartment and other small NY venues playing saxophone and a variety of reeds duck calls tapes and other instruments 1 4 26 Zorn immersed himself in the underground art scene assisting filmmaker Jack Smith with his performances and attending plays by Richard Foreman 27 Early compositions and recordings Edit Zorn s early major compositions included many game pieces described as complex systems harnessing improvisers in flexible compositional formats 28 29 These compositions involved strict rules role playing prompters with flashcards all in the name of melding structure and improvisation in a seamless fashion 2 Zorn s early game pieces had sporting titles like Lacrosse 1976 Hockey 1978 Pool 1979 and Archery 1979 which he recorded and first released on Eugene Chadbourne s Parachute label 30 31 His most enduring game piece is Cobra composed in 1984 and first recorded in 1987 and in subsequent versions in 1992 1994 and 2002 and revisited in performance many times 32 33 34 In the early 1980s Zorn was heavily engaged in improvisation as both a solo performer and with other like minded artists 2 Zorn s first solo saxophone recordings were originally released in two volumes as The Classic Guide to Strategy in 1983 and 1986 on the Lumina label 35 Zorn s early small group improvisations are documented on Locus Solus 1983 which featured Zorn with various combinations of other improvisers including Christian Marclay Arto Lindsay Wayne Horvitz Ikue Mori and Anton Fier 36 Ganryu Island featured a series of duets by Zorn with Michihiro Sato on shamisen which received limited release on the Yukon label in 1984 37 Zorn has subsequently reissued these early recordings 38 Zorn in 1990 Breakthrough recordings Edit Zorn s breakthrough recording was 1985 s widely acclaimed The Big Gundown released on Nonesuch Records where Zorn offered radical arrangements of Ennio Morricone s music for film 39 The album was endorsed by Morricone himself who said This is a record that has fresh good and intelligent ideas It is realization on a high level a work done by a maestro with great science fantasy and creativity Many people have done versions of my pieces but no one has done them like this 40 Zorn followed with another major label release Spillane in 1987 featuring compositions performed by Albert Collins the Kronos Quartet along with the title track an early file card composition 41 This method of combining composition and improvisation involved Zorn writing descriptions or ideas on file cards and arranging them to form the piece 42 Zorn described the process in 2003 I write in moments in disparate sound blocks so I find it convenient to store these events on filing cards so they can be sorted and ordered with minimum effort Pacing is essential If you move too fast people tend to stop hearing the individual moments as complete in themselves and more as elements of a sort of cloud effect I worked 10 to 12 hours a day for a week just orchestrating these file cards It was an intense process 43 Zorn s file card method of organizing sound blocks into an overall structure largely depended on the musicians he chose the way they interpreted what was written on the file cards and their relationship with Zorn I m not going to sit in some ivory tower and pass my scores down to the players said Zorn I have to be there with them and that s why I started playing saxophone so that I could meet musicians I still feel that I have to earn a player s trust before they can play my music At the end of the day I want players to say this was fun it was a lot of fucking work and it s one of the hardest things I ve ever done but it was worth the effort 43 Three further releases on Nonesuch followed Spy vs Spy in 1989 Naked City in 1990 and Filmworks 1986 1990 1992 before Zorn broke with the label 2 Music EditAll the various styles are organically connected to one another I m an additive person the entire storehouse of my knowledge informs everything I do People are so obsessed with the surface that they can t see the connections but they are there John Zorn 43 Jazz Edit Zorn demonstrated his hard bop credentials as a member of the Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet recording Voodoo in 1986 44 News for Lulu 1988 and More News for Lulu 1992 featured Zorn Bill Frisell and George E Lewis performing compositions by Clark Kenny Dorham Freddie Redd and Hank Mobley 45 46 He recorded Spy vs Spy featuring hardcore punk versions of Ornette Coleman s compositions in 1989 4 47 48 According to Cook Zorn s admirers often consider him a masterful bebop alto player but when he does perform in something approaching that style his playing has little of the tension and none of the relaxation of the great beboppers often sounding more strangulated than anything 1 Film music Edit Zorn stated that After my record The Big Gundown came out I was convinced that a lot of soundtrack work was going to be coming my way 49 While interest from Hollywood was not forthcoming eventually independent filmmakers like Sheila McLaughlin and Raul Ruiz sought his talents 50 Filmmaker Walter Hill rejected his music for a film to be called Looters 51 Although Zorn s score did not make the final cut he used the money he received to establish the record label Tzadik on which he released Filmworks II Music for an Untitled Film by Walter Hill in 1995 52 Zorn also produced a series of commercial soundtracks for the advertising firm Wieden Kennedy including one directed by Jean Luc Godard a long term Zorn inspiration 53 Zorn used his film commissions to record new ensembles like Masada and the Masada String Trio From the mid 1990s Zorn composed film music for independent films dealing with BDSM and LGBT culture documentaries exploring the Jewish experience and films about outsider artists In 2013 after releasing 25 volumes in his Filmworks Series Zorn announced that he would no longer be releasing music for film 54 Hardcore Naked City Painkiller and beyond Edit Zorn established Naked City in 1988 as a compositional workshop to test the limitations of a rock band format 55 Featuring Zorn saxophone Bill Frisell guitars Fred Frith bass Wayne Horvitz keyboards Joey Baron drums and vocalist Yamatsuka Eye and later Mike Patton Naked City blended Zorn s appreciation of hardcore punk and grindcore bands like Agnostic Front and Napalm Death with influences like film music country or jazz often in a single composition 56 The band performed pieces by film composers Ennio Morricone John Barry Johnny Mandel and Henry Mancini and modern classicists Alexander Scriabin Claude Debussy Charles Ives and Olivier Messiaen and recorded heavy metal and ambient albums In 1991 Zorn formed Painkiller with Bill Laswell on bass and Mick Harris on drums 57 Painkiller s first two releases Guts of a Virgin 1991 and Buried Secrets 1992 also featured short grindcore and free jazz inspired compositions 58 They released their first live album Rituals Live in Japan in 1993 followed by the double CD Execution Ground 1994 which featured longer dub and ambient styled pieces 59 A second live album Talisman Live in Nagoya was released in 2002 and the band was featured on Zorn s 50th Birthday Celebration Volume 12 2005 with Hamid Drake replacing Harris on drums and guest vocalist Mike Patton 60 Both bands attracted worldwide interest particularly in Japan where Zorn had relocated following a three month residency in Tokyo 61 Moonchild at the Barbican Mike Patton facing away and Trevor Dunn In 2006 Zorn formed the voice bass drums trio of Mike Patton Trevor Dunn and Joey Baron as a compositional challenge as a song cycle songs without words as he decided I want to work with Patton more Patton was very hungry to do more work together OK so let s start it with just bass drums and voice 4 62 Rolling Stone said Moonchild was a band that much like Naked City mutated radically across its lifespan as Zorn kept raising his compositional bar While it touched on similar extremes as that group its episodes are more sustained its structures more conventionally songlike noting For the first five of Moonchild s seven albums released from 2006 through 2014 Patton utilized his full whisper to scream range while operating entirely without lyrics 4 Concert music Edit As Zorn s interest in Naked City waned he started hearing classical music in his head again 63 Zorn started working on compositions that drew on chamber music arrangements of strings percussion and electronic instruments Elegy a suite dedicated to Jean Genet was released in 1992 64 This was followed by the piece Kristallnacht recorded in November 1992 his premiere work of radical Jewish culture featuring seven compositions reflecting the Kristallnacht Night of Broken Glass in late 1938 where Jews were targets of violence and destruction in Germany and Austria 65 66 The establishment of Tzadik allowed him to release many compositions which he had written over the previous two decades for classical ensembles Zorn s earliest released classical composition Christabel 1972 for five flutes first appeared on Angelus Novus in 1998 67 Zorn credits the composition of his 1988 string quartet Cat O Nine Tails commissioned and released by the Kronos Quartet on Short Stories to awakening him to the possibilities of writing for classical musicians This composition also appeared on The String Quartets 1999 and Cartoon S M 2000 along with variations on Kol Nidre inspired by the Jewish prayer of atonement which was written at the same time as the first Masada Book 68 Aporias Requia for Piano and Orchestra 1998 was Zorn s first full scale orchestral release featuring pianist Stephen Drury the Hungarian Radio Children s Choir and the American Composers Orchestra conducted by Dennis Russell Davies 69 Much of Zorn s classical work is dedicated or inspired by artists who have influenced him Duras Duchamp 1997 contains tributes to Marguerite Duras and Olivier Messiaen 70 Songs from the Hermetic Theatre 2001 features compositions dedicated to Harry Smith Joseph Beuys and Maya Deren 71 Madness Love and Mysticism 2001 featured Le Momo inspired by Antonin Artaud and Untitled dedicated to Joseph Cornell 72 Chimeras 2001 was based on Arnold Schoenberg s atonal composition Pierrot Lunaire 73 Several of Zorn s later concert works drew inspiration from mysticism and the works of Aleister Crowley in particular Magick 2004 featured a group called the Crowley Quartet 74 A 2009 performance of the album s centerpiece Necronomicon was described as frenetic vortexes of violent abrasive motion separated by eerily becalmed suspenseful sections with moody even prayerful melodies The music is sensational and evocative but never arbitrary you always sense a guiding hand behind the mayhem 75 Later works expanded to include vocal and operatic works Mysterium released in 2005 featured Frammenti del Sappho for female chorus 76 Rituals 2005 featured Zorn s opera composed for the Bayreuth Opera Festival in 1998 77 and La Machine de l Etre composed in 2000 premiered at the New York City Opera in 2011 and recorded for the 2012 album Music and Its Double 78 79 Zorn s concert works have been performed all over the world and he has received commissions from the New York Philharmonic Brooklyn Philharmonic and BBC Radio 3 80 81 Masada books Edit Book One Edit Masada Joey Baron drums Greg Cohen bass Dave Douglas trumpet John Zorn alto saxophone The experience of composing Kristallnacht prompted Zorn to explore his Jewish heritage and examine methods of composing using the Phrygian dominant scale 82 83 Zorn set himself the task of writing 100 compositions within a year 84 In 1993 Zorn engaged Dave Douglas trumpet Greg Cohen double bass and Joey Baron drums to provide musical cues for Joe Chappelle s first film Thieves Quartet later collected on Filmworks III 1990 1995 and established them as Masada to perform his recent compositions using the instrumental lineup and improvisational approach of Ornette Coleman s pioneering free jazz quartet 85 86 Within three years the number of compositions had grown to 205 and became known as the first Masada Book Zorn explained The project for Masada was to create something positive in the Jewish tradition something that maybe takes the idea of Jewish music into the 21st century the way jazz developed from the teens and 1920s into the 40s the 50s the 60s and on My initial idea was to write a hundred tunes And then I ended up writing over 200 for the first book and then performed it countless time for years 87 In 1996 Zorn released Bar Kokhba featuring Masada compositions recorded by a rotating group of musicians 88 Two ensembles arose from this album the Masada String Trio composed of Greg Cohen bass Mark Feldman violin and Erik Friedlander cello and the Bar Kokhba Sextet which added Marc Ribot guitar Cyro Baptista percussion and Joey Baron drums both of which were featured on 1998 s The Circle Maker 89 The Masada String Trio were also featured on Zorn s Filmworks series as part of his 50th Birthday Celebration and released two albums as part of the Book of Angels project Azazal and Haborym 90 91 92 93 In 2003 Zorn formed Electric Masada a band featuring Zorn Baptista Baron and Ribot along with Trevor Dunn bass Ikue Mori electronics Jamie Saft keyboards and Kenny Wollesen drums releasing their debut live album from Zorn s 50th Birthday Concert series and a double live CD recorded in 2004 94 In 2019 Zorn formed the New Masada Quartet with Julian Lage guitar Jorge Roeder bass and Kenny Wollesen drums 95 A Tenth Anniversary Series of Masada recordings was released by Zorn beginning in 2003 The series featured five albums of Masada themes including Masada Guitars by Marc Ribot Bill Frisell and Tim Sparks Masada Recital by Mark Feldman and Sylvie Courvoisier Masada Rock by Rashanim and two albums featuring various artists Voices in the Wilderness and The Unknown Masada 38 Bar Kokhba at 2014 Newport Jazz Festival with Marc Ribot John Zorn Cyro Baptista left to right Book Two Edit In 2004 Zorn began composing the second Masada Book The Book of Angels resulting in an additional 316 compositions 96 97 Zorn explained After 10 years of performing the first book I thought Maybe it d be nice to write some more tunes And I wrote 300 more tunes When I started writing those it was Let s see if I can write a hundred songs in a month this time I ve been working on these scales and playing these tunes all this time In the back of my head somewhere are lodged all kinds of new ideas Let s see if I can come up with 100 tunes in a month instead of in a year So in the first month I popped out a hundred tunes the second month another hundred in the third month a third 100 tunes I had no idea that was going to happen 87 Zorn released thirty two volumes of Masada Book Two compositions performed by many varied artists 98 99 The titles of many Masada Book Two compositions are derived from demonology and Judeo Christian mythology The Masada quartet performed at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in March 2007 for what were billed as their final concerts 100 Zorn reformed the band as a sextet with Uri Caine and Cyro Baptista in 2009 saying 101 I felt like we kind of hit a plateau a little bit with it in 2007 and I said Well maybe the quartet is really done Maybe we ve accomplished what we can accomplish Maybe it s time to put this to bed And then I was asked by the Marciac Jazz Festival to put together a slightly larger group They asked me what if I added a couple of people to Masada and I said I can t add anybody to the quartet The quartet is the quartet that s what we do But then I thought Well if I was going to add someone I would probably ask Uri and Cyro So we tried it at Marciac and it was unbelievable We didn t even have any rehearsal time I just passed the charts out and said OK just watch me because I ll be conducting Let s just do it And it was one of those magical clicks on the bandstand that sometimes happens So yeah this band is taking off again After 15 years of doing this music we can still find new things Zorn s Masada compositions and associated ensembles have become a central focus of many concerts and festivals and he has established regular Masada Marathons that feature various bands and musicians performing music from the Masada Books 96 102 Book Three Edit Zorn completed the third Masada book titled The Book Beriah in 2014 103 The Dreamers Edit Zorn released one of his most popular albums The Gift in 2001 which surprised many with its relaxed blend of surf exotica and world music 104 On February 29 2008 at St Ann s Warehouse in Brooklyn Zorn premiered The Dreamers which saw a return to the gentle compositions first featured on The Gift and established the band of the same name 105 The Dreamers released their second album O o in 2009 an album of Zorn s Book of Angels compositions in 2010 and a Christmas album in 2011 106 107 108 Other work Edit Zorn with Gavin Bryars and George E Lewis at the Barbican Tribute to Derek Bailey 2006 Tzadik Records Edit In 1992 John Zorn curated the Avant subsidiary of the DIW label and released several Naked City recordings on the label as well as many other albums featuring Zorn affiliated musicians including Derek Bailey Buckethead Eugene Chadbourne Dave Douglas Erik Friedlander Wayne Horvitz Ikue Mori Bobby Previte Zeena Parkins and Marc Ribot 109 In 1995 in co operation with jazz producer Kazunori Sugiyama Zorn established the Tzadik record label to ensure the availability of his catalogue and promote other musicians 61 101 The label s releases are divided into series The Archival Series features Zorn s recordings exclusively including re releases of several albums that appeared on other labels Zorn s film work and recordings from 1973 onwards The 50th Birthday Celebration Series is 11 live albums recorded in September 2003 at Tonic as part of the month long concert retrospective of Zorn s work The Composer Series features Zorn s music for classical ensembles along with work by many other contemporary composers The Radical Jewish Culture Series features contemporary Jewish musicians The New Japan Series covers Japanese underground music The Film Music Series features soundtracks by other musicians Zorn s Filmworks recordings are featured in the Archival Series The Oracle Series promotes women in experimental music The Key Series presents notable avant garde musicians and projects The Lunatic Fringe Series releases music and musicians operating outside of the broad categories offered by other series and The Spotlight Series promotes new bands and musical projects of young musicians 110 Tzadik also releases special edition CDs DVDs books and T shirts Since 1998 the designs of Tzadik releases have been created by graphic artist Heung Heung Chippy Chin 111 The Stone music venue Edit Zorn s earliest New York performances occurred at small artist run performance spaces including his own apartment 2 As his profile grew he became associated with several Lower East Side alternative venues such as the Knitting Factory and Tonic 87 On Friday April 13 2007 Zorn played the final night at Tonic before it closed due to financial pressures 112 113 114 Zorn was the principal force in establishing The Stone in 2005 an avant garde performance space in New York s Alphabet City which supports itself solely on donations and the sale of limited edition CDs giving all door revenues directly to the performers 115 Zorn holds the title of artistic director and regularly performs Improvisation Nights 116 Zorn feels that The Stone is a unique space and is different from Tonic the Knitting Factory and most of the other venues we have played at as there is no bar so there is NO pressure to pack the house with an audience that drinks and what night you perform has nothing to do with your power to draw a crowd or what kind of music you might play 117 On January 10 2008 Zorn performed with Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson at a special benefit night at The Stone which was also released on The Stone Issue Three on CD 118 In December 2016 Zorn announced that The Stone would close in February 2018 but that he was hopeful that a new location could be found stating Venues come and go but the music continues on forever 119 By March 2017 Zorn had negotiated with The New School to move The Stone to Greenwich Village 120 On February 25 2018 the last performance was held at the original venue and Zorn moved operations to The New School s The Glass Box Theatre on the basis of a handshake deal 121 50th and 60th birthday concert series Edit In September 2003 Zorn celebrated his 50th birthday with a month long series of performances at Tonic in New York repeating an event he had begun a decade earlier at the Knitting Factory 122 123 124 He conceptualized the month into several different aspects of his musical output Zorn s bands performed on the weekends classical ensembles were featured on Sundays Zorn performed improvisations with other musicians on Mondays featured his extended compositions on Tuesdays and a retrospective of game pieces on Wednesdays 125 A total of 12 live albums were released on his 50th Birthday Celebration Series 126 John Zorn performing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in September 2013 Zorn s 60th birthday celebrations encompassed concerts across the globe from festival appearances to unique events in art galleries and unusual venues across 2013 and into 2014 127 The first concerts under the Zorn 60 banner were performed at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in April 2013 128 This was followed by performances at the Museum of Modern Art and Solomon R Guggenheim Museum 129 130 The European leg of Zorn 60 commenced at the Barbican Theatre in London in July 2013 131 Festival appearances in Belgium Poland Spain and Germany followed soon after 132 133 134 135 136 These were followed by concerts in Victoriaville Canada 137 Returning to New York City other concert appearances occurred at Alice Tully Hall and Lincoln Centre 138 139 Zorn undertook another of his celebrated Masada Marathons at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in August 140 Further New York City concerts in September included performances of music for film at the Anthology Film Archives classical works and Cobra at the Miller Theatre a day long concert at the Metropolitan Museum of Art 141 and a performance of improvised duets with Ryuichi Sakamoto 142 143 144 In October the International Contemporary Ensemble performed a retrospective of Zorn s classical music at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago 145 The final Zorn 60 concerts were performed as part of the Adelaide Festival in Australia in March 2014 featuring a four concerts covering the breadth of his compositional and improvisational range 146 147 Arcana book series Edit In 2000 Zorn edited the book Arcana Musicians on Music featuring interviews essays and commentaries by musicians including Anthony Coleman Peter Garland David Mahler Bill Frisell Gerry Hemingway George E Lewis Fred Frith Eyvind Kang Mike Patton and Elliott Sharp on the compositional process 148 Zorn released the second volume of Arcana Musicians on Music in the summer of 2007 According to the preface by Zorn This second installment of what will be a continuing series of books presenting radical cutting edge ideas about music is made like the initial volume out of necessity 149 New volumes have since been released the eighth volume was published in September 2017 In other media Edit Zorn also appeared on the 1985 Henry Hills film Money about the financial struggles of Manhattan avant garde artists during the age of Reaganism 150 Awards EditIn 2001 John Zorn received the Jewish Cultural Award in Performing Arts from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture 151 In 2006 Zorn was named a MacArthur Fellow 152 153 In 2007 he was the recipient of Columbia University s School of the Arts William Schuman Award an honor given to recognize the lifetime achievement of an American composer whose works have been widely performed and generally acknowledged to be of lasting significance 154 In 2011 Zorn was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame by Lou Reed and was awarded the Magister Artium Gandensis an honorary degree from the University of Ghent 155 In 2014 he received honorary doctorates from The State University of New York and the New England Conservatory of Music 156 157 158 Discography EditMain article John Zorn discographyFilmography EditMoney 1985 a manic collage film by Henry Hills on the early days of language poetry and the downtown improvised music scene 159 Put More Blood Into the Music 1987 documentary by George Atlas on New York avant garde music aired Sunday March 12 1989 as episode 292 of The South Bank Show Step Across the Border 1990 documentary on Fred Frith A Bookshelf on Top of the Sky 12 Stories About John Zorn Tzadik 2004 film portrait by Claudia Heuermann Masada Live at Tonic 1999 2004 concert film Celestial Subway Lines Salvaging Noise 2005 experimental documentary by Ken Jacobs with soundtrack by Zorn and Ikue Mori Sabbath in Paradise Tzadik 2007 documentary by Claudia Heuermann on Jewish musical culture in New York s avant garde Jazz scene in the 1990s Astronome A Night at the Opera 2010 an opera by Richard Foreman music by John Zorn Bibliography EditZorn John editor Arcana Musicians on Music Hips Road New York 2000 ISBN 1 887123 27 X Zorn John editor Arcana II Musicians on Music Hips Road Tzadik New York 2007 ISBN 0 9788337 6 7 Zorn John editor Arcana III Musicians on Music Hips Road Tzadik New York 2008 ISBN 0 9788337 7 5 Zorn John editor Arcana IV Musicians on Music Hips Road Tzadik New York 2009 ISBN 0 9788337 8 3 Zorn John editor Arcana V Musicians on Music Magic amp Mysticism Hips Road Tzadik New York 2010 ISBN 0 9788337 9 1 Zorn John editor Arcana VI Musicians on Music Hips Road Tzadik New York 2012 ISBN 0 9788337 5 9 Zorn John editor Arcana VII Musicians on Music Hips Road Tzadik New York 2014 ISBN 0 9788337 4 0 Zorn John editor Arcana VIII Musicians on Music Hips Road Tzadik New York 2017 ISBN 0 9788337 3 2 References Edit a b c d e f g h Cook Richard 2005 Richard Cook s Jazz Encyclopedia London Penguin Books pp 685 6 ISBN 0 141 00646 3 a b c d e f g Milkowski B John Zorn One Future Two Views interview in Jazz Times March 2000 pp 28 35 118 121 accessed July 24 2010 Alkyer F First Take Happy Birthday Mr Zorn Down Beat October 2013 pg 10 a b c d e f g h Steamer H He Made the World Bigger Inside John Zorn s Jazz Metal Multiverse Rolling Stone June 22 2020 Rockwell J Zorn Variations on Themes by Morricone NY Times November 2 1986 Watrous P Spillane a Blend of American Styles NY Times May 25 1988 Rockwell J As Important As Anyone In His Generation NY Times February 21 1988 Pareles J There Are 8 Million Stories in John Zorn s Naked City NY Times April 8 1990 Burma M John Zorn Interview Browbeat Issue 1 1993 Watrous P John Zorn Takes Over the Town NY Times February 24 1989 Fordham J 1993 The Essential Guide to Jazz on CD Greenwich Editions London Liner notes to Nani Nani 1995 Tzadik New York a b Gordon T 2008 John Zorn Autonomy and the Avant Garde accessed November 15 2013 John Zorn Festival in Israel 2008 website Archived 2008 05 08 at the Wayback Machine accessed September 2 2008 Kelman J Festival International Musique Actuelle Victoriaville Review at All About Jazz May 15 2008 Moore C Adelaide Festival 2014 Loud and Proud Archived 2013 10 31 at the Wayback Machine Limelight October 29 2014 Milken Archive of Jewish Music People John Zorn milkenarchive org At 60 Challenges Are Opportunities For John Zorn NPR org September 3 2013 Helland D Downbeat com John Zorn Biography a b Bourgin S M ed 1996 Contemporary Musicians Vol 15 Zorn John accessed May 26 2008 Put More Blood Into the Music 1989 Wendell E Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians John Zorn Archived 2013 11 08 at the Wayback Machine accessed October 9 2013 Milkowski B 1998 John Zorn interview in Rockers Jazzbos amp Visionaries New York Watson Guptill Publications Bartlett A Zorn of Plenty Archived 2007 11 03 at the Wayback Machine Seattle Weekly June 23 1999 Zorn J 1995 liner notes to John Zorn First Recordings 1973 New York Tzadik Pareles J Concert Sounds of Staley And Zorn NY Times December 4 1983 Blumenfield L Iconic New York composer John Zorn celebrates his 60th in Australia The Saturday Paper March 8 2014 Zorn J The Game Pieces in Cox C amp Warner D Eds 2004 Audio Culture Readings in Modern Music Continuum Press New York ISBN 0 8264 1615 2 Duckworth W 1999 Talking Music Da Capo Press ISBN 0 306 80893 5 pp 444 476 Poop C E Pukekos Website January 28 2011 Roussel P 2013 John Zorn Discography accessed November 1 2013 Kozinn A John Zorn and Cobra NY Times September 3 1989 Ross A Music and Plenty of It 12 Hours Worth In Fact NY Times March 15 1993 Ratliff B Stretching the Boundaries of the Things Musicians Do NY Times August 5 1996 Proefrock S Allmusic Review The Classic Guide to Strategy accessed November 1 2013 Layne J Allmusic Review Locus Solus accessed November 1 2013 Layne J Allmusic Review Ganryu Island accessed November 1 2013 a b Tzadik Complete Catalog Tzadik com Yanow S Allmusic Review The Big Gundown accessed November 1 2013 Morricone E in liner notes to The Big Gundown 15th Anniversary Edition Tzadik New York Watrous P John Zorn Makes Radical Turn Chic nytimes com September 16 1993 Cook R amp Morton B 1992 The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD LP and Cassette Penguin Books a b c Service T Shuffle and Cut The Guardian March 7 2003 Yanow S Allmusic Review Voodoo accessed November 1 2013 Yanow S Allmusic Review News for Lulu accessed November 1 2013 Yanow S Allmusic Review More News for Lulu accessed November 1 2013 Rockwell J Zorn amp Berne Dowtown nytimes com August 22 1987 Yanow S Allmusic Review Spy vs Spy accessed November 1 2013 Zorn J 1992 liner notes to Filmworks 1986 1990 Tzadik New York Layne J Allmusic Review Filmworks 1986 1990 accessed November 6 2013 Tresspass 1992 Trivia IMDb Retrieved August 28 2021 Layne J Allmusic Review Filmworks II Music for an Untitled Film by Walter Hill accessed November 5 2013 Zorn J 1997 liner notes to Filmworks III 1990 1995 Tzadik New York Welcome to Tzadik Tzadik com Zorn J 1993 liner notes to Zornfest program Archived May 9 2008 at the Wayback Machine Carla Chiti 1998 John Zorn in Sonora Itinerari Oltre il Suono John Zorn Italy Materiali Sonori Edizioni Musicali Huey S Allmusic Artist Biography Painkiller accessed November 4 2013 Huey S Allmusic Review Buried Secrets accessed November 4 2013 Rikard M Allmusic Review Execution Ground accessed November 4 2013 Welcome to Tzadik Tzadik com a b Goldberg M John Zorn Interview Archived 2013 11 02 at the Wayback Machine BOMB Magazine Issue 80 Summer 2002 Walters J L John Zorn Crowley at the Crossroads The Guardian June 21 2006 McCutchen A 1999 The Muse that Sings Composers Speak about the Creative Process Oxford University Press New York p 167 Butler B Allmusic Review Elegy accessed November 4 2013 Pareles J Evoking a Terrible Night in 1938 nytimes com December 19 1992 Layne J Allmusic Review Kristallnacht accessed November 4 2013 Proefrock S Allmusic Review Angelus Novus accessed November 4 2013 Tommasini A Finding and Savoring A Muse in McHale s Navy nytimes com December 5 2001 Layne J Allmusic Review Aporias Requia for Piano and Orchestra accessed November 5 2013 Proefrock S Allmusic Review Duras Duchamp accessed November 5 2013 Jurek T Allmusic Review Songs from the Hermetic Theatre accessed November 5 2013 Jurek T Allmusic Review Madness Love and Mysticism accessed November 5 2013 Welcome to Tzadik Tzadik com Welcome to Tzadik Tzadik com Smith S Music in Review NY Times April 4 2009 Sanderson B Allmusic Review Mysterium accessed November 5 2013 Sanderson B Allmusic Review Rituals accessed November 5 2013 Woolfe Z To Get to City Opera Mr Downtown Practiced Eclecticism NY Times March 16 2011 Welcome to Tzadik Tzadik com liner notes to Madness Love and Mysticism 2001 Tzadik New York BBC SSO explore the kaleidoscopic world of John Zorn BBC Retrieved January 14 2013 Paeles J Old and New in a Jewish Festival nytimes com December 20 1995 Yaffe D Learning to Reed New York Nightlife April 5 1999 Kaplan F John Zorn s Joyful Jazz Slate October 3 2003 Ratliff B True to 60s Rhythms and Jewish Culture NY Times June 11 1999 Cyclic Defrost Greg Cohen Telepathic transmissions humour and joy Interview by Bob Baker Fish a b c Pehling D KTVU com Talks To Saxophonist John Zorn March 10 2009 Archived April 30 2009 at the Wayback Machine Gilman M Allmusic Review Bar Kokhba accessed November 6 2013 Layne J Allmusic Review The Circle Maker accessed November 6 2013 Jurek T Allmusic Review Filmworks XI Secret Lives accessed November 6 2013 Westergaard S Allmusic Review 50th Birthday Celebration Volume 1 accessed November 6 2013 Azazel Book of Angels Vol 2 John Zorn Songs Reviews Credits AllMusic Haborym Masada Book 2 Book of Angels Vol 16 Masada Masada String Trio John Zorn Songs Reviews Credits AllMusic Fordham J John Zorn The Guardian July 22 2003 John Zorn New Masada Quartet Julian Lage Jorge Roeder Kenny Wollesen Village Vanguard in New York on 11 03 2019 Oh My Rockness Retrieved 2022 09 27 a b Ratliff B A Most Prolific Composer Opens His Book of Angels NY Times September 12 2006 Gilbert A Music on the Edge San Francisco Chronicle May 29 2005 Phipps D Album Review Mary Halvorson Paimon Book Of Angels Volume 32 All About Jazz December 13 2017 Wolk D Pat Metheny Mingles in the Weird World of John Zorn MTVHive com May 29 2013 Ratliff B Barricades to Storm Whether or Not Any Guards Were on Them NY Times March 13 2007 a b Milkowski B John Zorn The Working Man Archived 2009 04 26 at the Wayback Machine Jazz Times May 2009 Chinen N Exploring the Topography of John Zorn s Continent nytimes com February 19 2010 John Zorn Introduces His Third Book of Masada Compositions JazzTimes JazzTimes Retrieved 2017 12 18 Welcome to Tzadik Tzadik com Chinen N Twangy Tones and Vibes in a Fistful of Nostalgia nytimes com March 3 2008 Jurek T Allmusic Review O o accessed November 26 2013 Allmusic entry Ipos Book of Angels Volume 14 accessed November 26 2013 A Dreamers Christmas John Zorn The Dreamers Songs Reviews Credits AllMusic Avant Discogs com Welcome to Tzadik Tzadik com Heung Heung Chin The Awakening of the Empyrean Dominion at The Proposition March 7 2008 Archived from the original on March 7 2008 Sisaro B Avant Garde Music Loses a Lower Manhattan Home NY Times March 31 2007 Chinen N Requiem for a Club Saxophone and Sighs NY Times April 16 2007 Romano T Dead Again Village Voice April 3 2007 Ratliff B For Jazz Musicians and Fans a Tiny Room of Their Own NY Times April 5 2005 Fitzell S P The Stone John Zorn s Latest Downtown Venture All About Jazz April 7 2005 Eisinger D W Altered Zones Artist Profile John Zorn Archived 2013 12 04 at the Wayback Machine accessed November 25 2013 Welcome to Tzadik Tzadik com Chinen N The Stone Announces Its End Date NY Times December 27 2016 Woolfe Z The Stone an Influential Music Space to Move to the New School NY Times March 1 2017 Russonello G John Zorn s Club the Stone Begins a New Life on the Other Side of Town NY Times February 27 2018 Pareles J 40 Years of Restless Music NY Times September 3 1993 Price E amp Roussel P Zornfest pages at WNUR at www wnur org Archived October 10 2007 at the Wayback Machine Ratliff B Fluttering Rat a tats to Celebrate a Birthday NY Times September 9 2003 Zorn J 2003 50th Birthday Celebration program Davis F Overcoming Irony John Zorn Goes for the Heart Not for the Easy Kill Village Voice March 23 2004 Sisario B Lionized but Restless as Ever NY Times July 10 2013 Schell J If You Don t Catch It It s Gone Zorn 60 Walker Art Centre Green Room April 10 2013 MoMA Events Archived from the original on 2013 11 05 Retrieved 2013 10 07 Smith S Under Installation Vocal Colors NY Times June 24 2013 Kilbey P How it s done John Zorn celebrates his 60th birthday at the Barbican Bachtrack July 16 2013 Terrie S Gent Jazz 2013 John Zorn at 60 DeMening July 14 2013 John Zorn na Warsaw Summer Jazz Days 2013 Jazzarium pl Zorn 60 at Warsaw Summer Jazz Days 2013 Free Jazz Alchemist July 9 2013 moers festival 2018 Moers festival de Weir B Review San Sebastian Jazz Festival Archived 2013 11 02 at the Wayback Machine Jazz Journal accessed October 7 2013 Woodard J Avant Garde Artists Thrive Annually at Victoriaville Archived 2013 11 02 at the Wayback Machine Down Beat September 27 2013 Sahr D Waving a Wand The Magic of John Zorn s Quartets Seen and Heard International website August 1 2013 Schweitzer It s His Party He Can Play With Elbows if He Wants NY Times July 19 2013 Pareles J A Fraction of a Repertory Is Enough for a Celebration of Productivity NY Times September 16 2013 Watch John Zorn and Mike Patton Terrorize the Met Museum for 11 Hours in 77 Seconds Christopher R Weingarten Spin September 30 2013 Smith S A Stage Buckling With New Music Luminaries Has Space for Orchestral Scores NY Times September 26 2013 Smith S Surrounding Art With the Sounds of 60 NY Times October 2 2013 HC John Zorn Ryuichi Sakamoto PopMatters October 6 2013 Reich H Celebrating John Zorn s 60th with plenty of ICE Chicago Tribune October 24 2013 McBeath J Zorn and co display dazzling versatility The Australian March 13 2014 Whittington S Adelaide Festival review 2014 Zorn in Oz Zorn 60 The Advertiser March 16 2014 Zorn J editor Arcana Musicians on Music Hips Road New York 2000 ISBN 1 887123 27 X Zorn J editor Arcana II Musicians on Music Hips Road New York 2007 ISBN 0 9788337 6 7 Money Henry Hills Merkin Concert Hall Composer John Zorn to Present Chimeras at Merkin Concert Hall press release May 8 2002 Archived February 28 2008 at the Wayback Machine Lee FR This Years MacArthur Awards Cover Many Fields NY Times September 19 2006 2006 Overview MacArthur Foundation Archived from the original on September 28 2006 Columbia News 2007 Composer John Zorn Garners William Schuman Award March 2007 University of Ghent Hogeschool website accessed August 31 2011 Archived October 8 2011 at the Wayback Machine The Music of John Zorn A 35 Year Retrospective New England Conservatory accessed August 1 2016 NEC Honorary Doctor of Music New England Conservatory accessed August 1 2016 Purchase College 2014 Commencement Celebrates Creativity and Achievement SUNY accessed August 1 2016 Cf website of filmmaker Henry Hills Retrieved June 16 2013 Archived October 10 2013 at the Wayback MachineFurther reading EditNYTimes feature interview 2013 John Zorn collected news and commentary at The New York TimesExternal links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to John Zorn Tzadik com The Stone website Hips Road Edition Concert music of John Zorn including score and mp3 samples Art of the States John Zorn John Zorn at IMDb Works by or about John Zorn in libraries WorldCat catalog Discography of John Zorn by Patrice Roussel to June 2013 John Zorn Primer The Wire Issue 156 Feb 1997 John Zorn interview Hungarian Brackett John John Zorn Tradition and Transgression Bloomington Indiana University Press 2008 ISBN 978 0 253 22025 7 John Zorn Q amp A Session John Zorn radio interview by Chris Comer chriscomerradio com john zorn john zorn8 24 1999 htm Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title John Zorn amp oldid 1130613501, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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