John Zorn

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John Zorn
Background information
Born	September 2, 1953 (age 53)
Origin	New York City, USA
Genre(s)	free jazz improvised thrash hardcore electronic music surf contemporary classical music
Occupation(s)	composer and producer
Instrument(s)	alto saxophone
Years active	1973 - present
Label(s)	Tzadik, Avant, DIW, Electra Nonesuch, Earache, Hat Hut
Associated acts	Naked City, Masada, Painkiller, Hemophiliac, Weird Little Boy
Website	www.tzadik.com[[1]]
Notable instrument(s)
saxophone, clarinet, duck calls, voice, piano, Theremin, wind machine

John Zorn (born September 2, 1953 in Queens, USA) is a Jewish American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist.

Though not well-known to the general public, Zorn's recorded output is astonishingly prolific, with hundreds of album credits as a performer, composer or producer. His work has touched on dozens of musical genres, but he is probably best-known for his jazz and contemporary music; he also led the notable experimental rock group Naked City.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Early Composition 3 Breakthrough Recordings 4 Jazz Interpreter 5 Film Music 6 Hardcore 7 Establishing a Label 8 The Masada Books 9 Other Collaborations 10 50th Birthday Celebration 11 Recent Projects 12 In popular culture 13 Selected Discography 13.1 Solo Albums 13.2 Filmworks Series 13.3 Music Romance Series 13.4 Parachute Years 13.5 Cobra 13.6 with Naked City 13.7 with Masada (John Zorn, Dave Douglas, Greg Cohen, Joey Baron) 13.8 with Masada String Trio 13.9 with Bar Kokhba Sextet 13.10 with Electric Masada 13.11 with Painkiller 13.12 with Hemophiliac 13.13 Masada Anniversary Series 13.14 50th Birthday Celebration Series 13.15 Album Collaborations 13.16 Albums Featured 14 Filmography 15 External links

[edit] Biography

John Zorn was born in New York City, and as a child played piano, guitar and flute. He studied at Webster College (now Webster University) in St. Louis, Missouri, where he incorporated free jazz, avant-garde and experimental music, film scores, performance art and the cartoon scores of Carl Stalling into his first recordings. Dropping out of college and moving to Manhattan, Zorn gave concerts in his small apartment, playing saxophone and a variety of reeds, duck calls, tapes, etc. He founded the Theatre of Musical Optics in 1975 and became a major participant in the fertile, experimental downtown music scene as a composer, performer and producer of music that challenges the confines of any single musical genre.

After releasing albums on several independent and European labels, Zorn signed with the Elektra-Nonesuch label and attracted wide acclaim in 1985 with his interpretations of music composed by Ennio Morricone, the album Spillane in 1987, and the first album by Naked City in 1990. Zorn then recorded on the Japanese DIW and Avant labels before forming Tzadik Records in 1995, where he has been quite prolific, usually issuing several new recordings each year and releasing works by many other musicians.

In 1993 Zorn recorded his premiere work of radical Jewish culture, Kristallnacht, which inspired a re-evaluation of his heritage that led to the composition of the first Masada book of over 300 tunes incorporating klezmer styles with his already broad musical palette.

In 2006 Zorn was named a MacArthur Fellow.[2]

[edit] Early Composition

Zorn's early major compositions included several "game pieces", in which performers are allowed to improvise while following certain structural rules. These works are were, in the main, named after sports, and include Pool, Archery (recorded at Martin Bisi's legendary studio), and Lacrosse, as well as Cobra. These compositions also often utilised postmodern, sometimes extreme, sound blocks, units which combine and contrast in various ways. Zorn discusses his history and the musical philosophy behind his early works in the book Talking Music (ISBN 0-306-80893-5) by William Duckworth.

[edit] Breakthrough Recordings

Zorn's breakthrough recording was 1985's The Big Gundown: John Zorn Plays the Music of Ennio Morricone, where Zorn offered radical arrangements of the Roman composer's themes from various movies. The Big Gundown was endorsed by Morricone – "Many people have done versions of my pieces, but no one has done them like this" – and incorporated elements of traditional Japanese music, soul jazz, and other diverse musical genres. Zorn followed this with "Spillane" in 1987 comprised of three different 'tribute' compositions. The title track featured text by Arto Lindsay set to an array of sonic film noir references, 'Two-Lane Highway' a blues-based form to highlight the guitar of Albert Collins and 'Forbidden Fruit', Zorn's tribute to a Japanese film star, performed by the Kronos Quartet. Both of these albums contain examples of Zorn's "file card compositions", in which Zorn would write down a description of what he wanted on file cards and arrange them to form the piece. This method of organizing sound blocks into an overall structure was still largely dependent on the musicians he chose, and the way they interpreted what was written on the file cards.

[edit] Jazz Interpreter

Beginning in 1986 Zorn participated in several projects focussed on modern jazz composers which highlighted his saxophone style. These included The Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet, with Wayne Horvitz, Ray Drummond and Bobby Previte, Spy Vs Spy - hardcore punk-informed interpretations of Ornette Coleman's music featuring Zorn and Tim Berne on saxophones, Mark Dresser on bass and Joey Baron and Michael Vatcher on drums, and News for Lulu, where Zorn, Bill Frisell and George Lewis performed compositions by Kenny Dorham, Sonny Clark, Freddie Redd, and Hank Mobley. He also contributed to the 'Sax Legends' series (later re-released as The Colossal Saxophone Sessions) in 1995 with a version of Wayne Shorter's composition 'Devil's Island' alongside Lee Konitz.

[edit] Film Music

From 1986 Zorn's music has featured in many, underground films, television spots, and documentaries. Zorn has documented his music for television and film, which has been collected in the ongoing Filmworks series, on his label, Tzadik. Some of these film scores are jazz-influenced, others classical and most feature ensembles comprised of rotating combinations of downtown musicians.

[edit] Hardcore

Zorn established Naked City in 1989. The band performed an aggressive mix of jazz, rock and thrash metal later combined with classical compositions and ambient styles. Featuring Zorn on saxophone, Bill Frisell - guitars, Wayne Horvitz - keyboards, Joey Baron - drums, and featuring extreme vocals from Yamatsuka Eye and later Mike Patton, Naked City incorporated Zorn's appreciation of hardcore bands like Agnostic Front and Napalm Death with jump-cut movements to other styles. The band's early releases featured 'hardcore miniatures' - intense brief compositions usually lasting less than 40 seconds. Zorn also formed Painkiller (who performed a mix of grindcore, free jazz and ambient styles) with Bill Laswell on bass and Mick Harris on drums. Releases from both bands were criticized for their graphic or offensive album covers.

[edit] Establishing a Label

In 1992 John Zorn collaborated with the Japanese Disc Union label to curate the Avant imprint, a subsidiary of the DIW jazz label which released the first Masada albums. Several Naked City recordings were released through the Avant label as well as many others on which Zorn featured downtown musicians including Derek Bailey, Buckethead, Eugene Chadbourne, Dave Douglas, Erik Friedlander, Wayne Horvitz, Ikue Mori, Bobby Previte, Zeena Parkins, and Marc Ribot. In 1995, in co-operation with the famed jazz producer Kazunori Sugiyama, Zorn established the Tzadik label to ensure availabilty of his catalogue and promote experimental musicians, particularly those working in improvised music. He is inspired by other artists and different musical styles. He has a special attraction to underground artists and musical styles that are extremely loud, wild, or creative.

[edit] The Masada Books

John Zorn recorded the album "Kristallnacht" in November 1992 consisting of a suite of seven compositions inspired by the infamous "Night of Broken Glass" ocurring in late 1938 where Jews were targets of violence and destruction in Germany and Austria. The experience prompted Zorn to further explore his Jewish heritige and led to an interest in Jewish musical styles. Zorn then set himself the task of writing 100 compositions within a year in these styles. Within three years the number of compositions had grown to 200 and became known as the first "Masada Book".

The first products of this compositional approach were ten albums by Masada released on the Japanese DIW label. Masada (later referred to as 'acoustic' Masada) was an Ornette Coleman-inspired quartet with Zorn on saxophone, Joey Baron (drums), Dave Douglas (trumpet), and Greg Cohen (bass). The band played jazz-styled compositions based on Sephardic scales and rhythms. The original Masada albums were titled after the first ten letters of the Hebrew Alphabet and the song titles were Hebrew words. Further releases by Masada consisted of live performances of the band recorded around the world.

The Masada Book has been performed in several different arrangements by many combinations of musicians including the Masada String Trio, Bar Kohkba, and Electric Masada.

In 2005 Zorn began production on the second Masada Book - 'The Book of Angels'. He has released several albums of Masada Book Two compositions performed by various combinations of musicians. The titles of many Masada Book Two compositions are derived from demonology and judeo-christian mythology.

[edit] Other Collaborations

Zorn has also worked with musicians such as Gary Lucas, Derek Bailey, Cyro Baptista, Trevor Dunn, Mark Feldman, Fred Frith, Erik Friedlander, Keiji Haino, Arto Lindsay, John Medeski, Robert Quine, Jamie Saft, Kenny Wolleson, and the Violent Femmes.

Zorn has lived and worked extensively in Japan and performs and records under the name Dekoboko Hajime, collaborating with and producing for numerous artists including Merzbow, Otomo Yoshihide, Melt Banana and of frequent collaborator Yamatsuka Eye. Many of these artists have now released albums on Tzadik and some regularly travel to New York where Zorn is based.

Zorn appeared in Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel's 1990 documentary film on Fred Frith, Step Across the Border. In 2000 Zorn edited the book Arcana: Musicians on music (ISBN 1-887123-27-X) featuring interviews, essays, and commentaries by musicians including Peter Garland, David Mahler, Bill Frisell, Gerry Hemingway, George Lewis, Fred Frith, Eyvind Kang, Mike Patton and Elliot Sharp, on the compositional process.

[edit] 50th Birthday Celebration

In September 2003 Zorn celebrated his 50th birthday with a month-long series of performances at Tonic in New York. He conceptualized the month into several different aspects of his musical output. Bands on the weekends, classical music on Sundays, improvisations with other musicians on Mondays, compositions on Tuesdays and a retrospective of game pieces on Wednesdays. Many of these performances were released on his 50th Birthday Celebration Series.

[edit] Recent Projects

Most recently 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, giving all door revenues directly to the performers. Zorn holds the title of artistic director.

In 2006 Zorn released two albums of compositions performed by voice/bass/drums trio of Mike Patton, Trevor Dunn, and Joey Baron. A third album with the trio, but also featuring Zorn, Ikue Mori, Marc Ribot, Jamie Saft and a female chorus, Six Litanies for Heliogabalus, was released in 2007.

[edit] In popular culture

• The character of Stephen Colbert from the TV show The Colbert Report expressed his disapproval at the MacArthur Foundation's award of the Genius Grant to Zorn. On the particular broadcast, Colbert played a 10-second dissonant excerpt not entirely representative of Zorn's prodigious output, and proceeded to parody the segment by re-playing a segment where he had played atonally on a saxophone in a manner similar to Zorn, alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who played on bass. After this Colbert pleaded to the camera, "Genius Grant please!", apparently making reference to the supposedly lax criteria for the awarding of such grants.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Selected Discography

[edit] Solo Albums

• The Classic Guide to Strategy: Volume 1 (1981)
• Yankees (1983)
• Locus Solus (1983, 1997)
• Ganryu Island (1984, 1998)
• The Classic Guide to Strategy: Volume 2 (1985)
• The Big Gundown (1986)
• Spillane (1987)
• Spy vs Spy (1989)
• Elegy (1991)
• First Recordings 1973 (1995)
• Kristallnacht (1993)
• Bar Kokhba (1996) 2CD
• The Classic Guide to Strategy (1996, Collecting the out of print Volumes 1 and 2)
• Duras: Duchamp (1997)
• New Traditions in East Asian Bar Bands (1997)
• Angelus Novus (1998)
• Aporias (1998)
• The Bribe (1998)
• Godard/Spillane (1999)
• The String Quartets (1999)
• The Big Gundown: 15th Anniversary Special Edition (2000, Remastered, with bonus tracks)
• Xu Feng (2000)
• Cartoon S/M (2000) 2CD
• Madness, Love and Mysticism (2001)
• Songs from the Hermetic Theater (2001)
• Chimeras (2003)
• Magick (2004)
• Mysterium (2005)
• Moonchild: Songs Without Words (2006)
• Astronome (2006)
• Six Litanies for Heliogabalus (2007)

[edit] Filmworks Series

• Filmworks 1986-1990 (1997)
• Filmworks II: Music for an Untitled Film by Walter Hill (1996)
• Filmworks III: 1990-1995 (1997)
• Filmworks IV: S&M (1997)
• Filmworks V: Tears of Ecstasy (1996)
• Filmworks VI: 1996 (1996)
• Filmworks VII: Cynical Hysterie Hour (1997)
• Filmworks VIII: 1997 (1998)
• Filmworks IX: Trembling Before G-D (2000)
• Filmworks X: In The Mirror of Maya Deren (2001)
• Filmworks XI: Under the Wing (2002)
• Filmworks XII: Three Documentaries (2002)
• Filmworks XIII: Invitation to a Suicide (2002)
• Filmworks XIV: Hiding and Seeking (2003)
• Filmworks XV: Protocols of Zion (2005)
• Filmworks XVI: Workingman's Death (2005)
• Filmworks XVII: Notes on Marie Menken/Ray Bandar: A Life with Skulls (2006)
• Filmworks XVIII: The Treatment (2006)

[edit] Music Romance Series

• Music for Children (Volume One, 1998)
• Taboo & Exile (Volume Two, 1999)
• The Gift (Volume Three, 2001)
• I.A.O. (Volume Four, 2002)

[edit] Parachute Years

• Lacrosse (1977, 1997, 2000) 2CD
• Pool (1980, 1997, 2000)
• Hockey (1980, 1997, 2002)
• Archery (1981, 1997, 2001) 3CD

[edit] Cobra

• Live at the Knitting Factory (1992)
• Tokyo Operations '94 (1994)
• John Zorn's Game Pieces Volume 2 (2002)

[edit] with Naked City

• Naked City (1989)
• Torture Garden (1990)
• Grand Guignol (1992)
• Leng Tch'e (1992)
• Heretic (1992)
• Radio (1993)
• Absinthe (1993)
• Black Box (1996, collects Torture Garden & Leng Tch'e albums) 2xCD
• Naked City Live, Vol. 1: Knitting Factory 1989 (2002)
• Naked City Box Set (2005)

[edit] with Masada (John Zorn, Dave Douglas, Greg Cohen, Joey Baron)

• Alef (1994)
• Beit (1994)
• Gimel (1994)
• Dalet (1994) EP
• Hei (1995)
• Vav (1995)
• Zayin (1996)
• Heit (1996)
• Tet (1997)
• Yod (1997)
• Live in Taipei 1995 (1998)
• Live in Jerusalem 1994 (1999) 2CD
• Live In Middleheim 1999 (1999)
• Live in Sevilla 2000 (2000)
• Live at Tonic 2001 (2001)
• First Live 1993 (2002)
• 50th Birthday Celebration Volume Seven (2004)
• Sanhedrin (2005) 2CD

[edit] with Masada String Trio

• The Circle Maker (1998, Disc 1 by Masada String Trio, Disc 2 by Bar Kokhba Sextet) 2CD
• 50th Birthday Celebration Volume One (2004)
• Azazel: Book Of Angels Vol. 2 (2005)

[edit] with Bar Kokhba Sextet

• The Circle Maker (1998, Disc 1 by Masada String Trio, Disc 2 by Bar Kokhba Sextet) 2CD
• 50th Birthday Celebration Volume Eleven (2005)

[edit] with Electric Masada

• 50th Birthday Celebration Volume Four (2004)
• At the Mountains of Madness (2005) 2CD

[edit] with Painkiller

• Guts of a Virgin (1991) EP
• Buried Secrets (1992) EP
• Rituals: Live in Japan (1993)
• Execution Ground (1994)
• Collected Works (1997, Includes Guts of a Virgin, Buried Secrets, Execution Ground, Live in Osaka and bonus material) 4CD
• Guts of a Virgin/Buried Secrets (1998, Collection of first two EP's)
• Talisman: Live in Nagoya (2002)
• 50th Birthday Celebration Volume Twelve (2005, guest vocals by Mike Patton)

[edit] with Hemophiliac

• Hemophiliac (2002)
• 50th Birthday Celebration Volume Six (2004)

[edit] Masada Anniversary Series

• Masada Anniversary Edition Vol. 1: Masada Guitars (2003)
• Masada Anniversary Edition Vol. 2: Voices in the Wilderness (2003)
• Masada Anniversary Edition Vol. 3: The Unknown Masada (2003)
• Masada Anniversary Edition Vol. 4: Masada Recital (2004)
• Masada Anniversary Edition Vol. 5: Masada Rock (2005)

[edit] 50th Birthday Celebration Series

• 50th Birthday Celebration Volume One (by Masada String Trio, 2004)
• 50th Birthday Celebration Volume Two (by Milford Graves/John Zorn, 2004)
• 50th Birthday Celebration Volume Three (by Locus Solus, 2004)
• 50th Birthday Celebration Volume Four (by Electric Masada, 2004)
• 50th Birthday Celebration Volume Five (by Fred Frith/John Zorn, 2004)
• 50th Birthday Celebration Volume Six (by Hemophiliac, 2004)
• 50th Birthday Celebration Volume Seven (by Masada, 2004)
• 50th Birthday Celebration Volume Eight (by Wadada Leo Smith/Susie Ibarra/John Zorn, 2004)
• 50th Birthday Celebration Volume Nine: The Classic Guide to Strategy Volume Three (by John Zorn, 2004)
• 50th Birthday Celebration Volume Ten (by Yamataka Eye/John Zorn, 2005)
• 50th Birthday Celebration Volume Eleven (by Bar Kokhba Sextet, 2005) 3CD
• 50th Birthday Celebration Volume Twelve (by Painkiller, 2005)

[edit] Album Collaborations

• School (by Eugene Chadbourne/John Zorn, 1978)
• News for Lulu (by John Zorn, Bill Frisell, George Lewis - 1988)
• More News for Lulu (by John Zorn, Bill Frisell, George Lewis - 1992)
• Art of Memory (by John Zorn/Fred Frith, 1994 - reissued in 1999)
• Zohar (by The Mystic Fugu Orchestra, 1995)
• Downtown Lullaby (by John Zorn/Wayne Horvitz/Elliot Sharp/Bobby Previte, 1998)
• The Stone: Issue One (by John Zorn/Dave Douglas/Mike Patton/Bill Laswell/Rob Burger/Ben Perowsky, 2006)
• Possession (by "God" featuring Justin Broadick/Kevin Martin/John Zorn, 1992)

[edit] Albums Featured

• Purged Specimen (by Blind Idiot God, 1989)
• Blue Planet Man (by Big John Patton, 1993)
• Sacrifist (by Praxis, 1994)
• Minor Swing (by Big John Patton, 1995)
• Pranzo Oltranzista (by Mike Patton, 1997)
• Weird Little Boy (by Weird Little Boy, 1998)
• Prelapse (by Prelapse, 1999)

[edit] Filmography

• A Bookshelf On Top Of The Sky: 12 Stories About John Zorn (2004)
• Masada Live at Tonic 1999 (2004)
• Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise (2005)
• Sabbath in Paradise (2007)

[edit] External links

• Tzadik.com
• Discography
• Mailing List
• Zorn Mailing List Archives
• Art of the States: John Zorn
• John Zorn's biography and discography by Scott Maykrantz
• Unofficial John Zorn Homepage maintained by Jamie Graves.
• [http://www.deconstructioninmusic.com Deconstruction in Music by Marcel Cobussen. Interactive dissertation on deconstruction in the music of John Zorn and others.
• John Zorn interview (Hungarian)