John Zorn

John Zorn

John Zorn (born September 2, 1953 in Queens, USA) is an 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.

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 apartment and other small NY venues playing saxophone and a variety of reeds, duck calls, tapes, and other instruments. He founded the Theatre of Musical Optics in 1975[3] 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 US 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 released his premiere work of radical Jewish culture, Kristallnacht, which inspired a re-evaluation of his heritage, leading 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.

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."

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, in the main, named after sports, and include Pool, Archery (recorded at Martin Bisi's legendary studio), and Lacrosse. His most enduring "game piece" is Cobra which Zorn first released in 1987, recorded in subsequent versions in 1994 and 1995, and has revisited in performance many times. These compositions use cues, rules, and strategies to combine and contrast improvisations in various, sometimes extreme, 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.

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 movies including The Big Gundown, A Fistful of Dynamite, Once Upon a Time in the West,and Once Upon a Time in America. 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's 15th Anniversary re-release of the album featured additional explorations of Morricone's work.

He first released the composition 'Godard' on the Nato label tribute album The Godard Fans: Godard Ca Vous Chante? in 1986. Zorn followed this with his second major-label release 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. Further exploration of film noir themes were recorded for radio plays and released by Zorn as The Bribe: variations and extensions on Spillane. 'Godard' and 'Spillane' were re-released as a single CD on Tzadik in 1999.

All 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.

Jazz interpreter
Beginning in 1986 Zorn participated in several projects focussed on modern jazz composers which highlighted his saxophone style. These included Voodoo (1986) by The Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet, with Wayne Horvitz, Ray Drummond and Bobby Previte, Spy Vs Spy (1989) featured 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 (1988) and More News for Lulu (1992) where Zorn, Bill Frisell and George Lewis performed compositions by Kenny Dorham, Sonny Clark, Freddie Redd, and Hank Mobley. He performed on two recordings by organist Big John Patton - Blue Planet Man (1993) and Minor Swing (1995) and contributed to the Sax Legends series (later re-released as The Colossal Saxophone Sessions) in 1993 with a version of Wayne Shorter's composition 'Devil's Island' alongside Lee Konitz.

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

Hardcore
Zorn established Naked City in 1989. The band performed an aggressive mix of jazz, rock, blues, country music, 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 occasional vocals from Yamatsuka Eye and later Mike Patton, Naked City incorporated Zorn's appreciation of hardcore bands like Agnostic Front and Napalm Death[9] with other styles. The band's early releases featured 'hardcore miniatures' - intense brief compositions often lasting less than a minute. 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. Zorn left Electra Nonesuch after the company's response to the artwork for the Naked City release Grand Guignol releasing the remaining Naked City albums on a Japanese-based label, Avant.

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 jazz producer Kazunori Sugiyama, Zorn established the Tzadik label to ensure availabilty of his catalogue and promote experimental musicians. He is inspired by other artists and different musical styles, particularly those working in improvised music. Zorn has a special attraction to underground artists and musical styles that are extremely loud, wild, or creative. Tzadik has established a diverse catalogue reflecting Zorn's range of musical influences and influence.

The Masada Books
John Zorn recorded the album "Kristallnacht" in November 1992 consisting of a suite of seven compositions reflecting the infamous Night of Broken Glass 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 initial releases featuring this compositional approach were ten albums by Masada appearing on the Japanese DIW label from 1994. 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 quartet performed at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in March 2007 for what were billed as their final concerts.

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. A Tenth Anniversary Series of Masada recordings was released by Zorn beginning in 2003.

In 2004 Zorn began composing 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.

Concert music
John Zorn has established a diverse repertoire of music written for chamber musicians and orchestras. Zorn's earliest released 'classical' composition (for five flutes), 'Christabel' was written in 1972 and first appeared on Angelus Novus in 1998. Zorn released the album-length suites of compositions Elegy (dedicated to Jean Genet) in 1992 and Kristallnacht in 1993 which used chamber music arrangements of strings, percussion and electronic instruments.

The establishment of Tzadik allowed Zorn to release many compositions which he had written (over the previous two decades) for classical ensembles. Redbird (containing new compositions for bass drums and a harp/viola/cello/percussion quartet) and The Book of Heads (35 etudes for solo guitar written in 1978) were released in 1995 as part of Tzadiks Composer Series. Zorn credits the composition of his 1988 piece for string quartet 'Cat O' Nine Tails' with awakening him to the possibilities of writing for classical musicians. This composition was featured on String Quartets (1999) and Cartoon/S&M (2000) along with variations on 'Kol Nidre' written at the same time as (but not part of) the Masada book.

Madness, Love and Mysticism (2001) featured 'Le Mômo', inspired by Antonin Artaud, with Stephen Drury (piano) and Jennifer Choi (violin); 'Untitled', dedicated to Joseph Cornell, a cello solo for Erik Friedlander; and 'Amour Fou' featuring the trio. Magick (2004) featured the Crowley Quartet on 'Necromicon: for string quartet' and 'Sortelage' for two bass clarinets. Mysterium released in 2005 featured 'Orphée' performed by a sextet of flute, viola, harp, harpsichord and electronics; 'Frammenti Del Sappho' for female chorus; and 'Wulpurgisnacht' for string trio.

Zorn's concert works have been performed all over the world and he has received commissions from the New York Philharmonic and Brooklyn Philharmonic.

Other collaborations
Zorn has also worked with musicians such as Eugene Chadbourne, Gary Lucas, Derek Bailey, Cyro Baptista, Trevor Dunn, Mark Feldman, Mike Patton, 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 Elliott Sharp, on the compositional process.

50th birthday celebration
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. 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.

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 a voice/bass/drums trio of Mike Patton, Trevor Dunn, and Joey Baron: Moonchild: Songs Without Words and Astronome. A third album with the trio, but also featuring Zorn, Ikue Mori, Jamie Saft and chorus, Six Litanies for Heliogabalus, was released in 2007.

On Friday April 13, 2007, Zorn played the final night at Tonic, the Lower East Side venue where he played regularly for the previous decade, which closed due to financial pressures.

Selected discography

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 (1992)
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)
From Silence to Sorcery (2007)

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)

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)

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

Cobra
Cobra (1987)
Live at the Knitting Factory (1992)
Tokyo Operations '94 (1994)
John Zorn's Game Pieces Volume 2 (2002)

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)

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

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)

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)

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

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)

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

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)

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)

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)

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)