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John Zorn (born 2 September 1953 in New York City) is an American composer and saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist. He owns the Tzadik record label and has worked with a large number of experimental musicians, particularly in improvised music, incorporating modern classical music, jazz and even death metal and grindcore as well as having produced music to include most styles.
As a child, he played piano, guitar and flute. He went to college in St. Louis, Missouri at Webster College (now Webster University) where he discovered free jazz, before dropping out and moving to Manhattan. There he gave concerts in his small apartment, playing a variety of reeds, duck calls, tapes, etc; almost anything (sometimes he played “musical optics” which involved no instruments or sounds at all, but rather the arrangement of lights and objects in a dark room). In the mid 1980s he signed to the Elektra-Nonesuch label. Since then, Zorn has been quite prolific, usually putting out several new records each year. His breakthrough recording was perhaps 1985’s The Big Gundown: John Zorn Plays the Music of Ennio Morricone, wherein Zorn offered a number of often radical arrangements of Morricone’s famed songs from various movies. The Big Gundown was endorsed by Morricone, and incorporated elements of traditional Japanese music, soul jazz, and other diverse musical genres.
As a child, he played piano, guitar and flute. He went to college in St. Louis, Missouri at Webster College (now Webster University) where he discovered free jazz, before dropping out and moving to Manhattan. There he gave concerts in his small apartment, playing a variety of reeds, duck calls, tapes, etc; almost anything (sometimes he played “musical optics” which involved no instruments or sounds at all, but rather the arrangement of lights and objects in a dark room). In the mid 1980s he signed to the Elektra-Nonesuch label. Since then, Zorn has been quite prolific, usually putting out several new records each year. His breakthrough recording was perhaps 1985’s The Big Gundown: John Zorn Plays the Music of Ennio Morricone, wherein Zorn offered a number of often radical arrangements of Morricone’s famed songs from various movies. The Big Gundown was endorsed by Morricone, and incorporated elements of traditional Japanese music, soul jazz, and other diverse musical genres.
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Naked City
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The Gift
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Moonchild
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The Circle Maker: Issachar
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Shoutbox
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Ashona223 wrote:
love John Zorn
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SxHxCx wrote:
He's God.
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WillOtheWisp666 wrote:
GOOD shit.
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muket wrote:
him and zappa release so much shit
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WillOtheWisp666 wrote:
I kind of agree. But I'm sure he'll have more noisy stuff out. Moonchild?
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moon_musick wrote:
xaphan is the best release out of book two imo, it is quite nice indeed. generally, it's not only lack of variety. i simply don't enjoy easy listening stuff, always preferred, say, peter broetzmann over miles davis. the first album i heard zorn playing on was god's 'possession' and that is zorn i like best. some of his releases will be my favorites for years, i'm sure of that. 'torture garden' is a perfect work of postmodern art, at the same time defying genres completely and entirely based upon existing genre divisions, showing how little is necessary to recognize some specific style, thus encapsulating entire styles and genres in mere seconds - any 'orthodoxy' is so pointless then - but also consisting only of quotes, and actually non-specific ones, attributable to many works in a specific style. but the aesthetic spect is as much important - it wouldn't be the same if fred frith didn't play bass with a drumstick... there could be at least *some* noise in his new stuff.
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WillOtheWisp666 wrote:
oh man oh man, I can't wait for another Moonchild release.
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WillOtheWisp666 wrote:
moon_musick: If you want albums where each song doesn't sound the same, there's plenty of them. Zorn is doing what he wants to do, and in my opinion Book 2 is great. If you don't enjoy Book 2, there's a HELL A LOT of albums in Book 1. My point is, there's so much stuff Zorn has, if you don't like something, there's plenty of other stuff by him you can listen to. For someone who releases this much stuff, I personally think it's amazing, because, well, I actually think his discography is flawless, except some of the filmworks are a bit boring.
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WillOtheWisp666 wrote:
moon_musick: What about Zaebos, Xaphan, and Lucifer? Those 3 are just awesome. ESPECIALLY Xaphan, cuz it's Secret Chiefs 3, and they're the best!!
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sxesven wrote:
masada book 2 is genius, seriously impossible to deny the greatness of feldman/courvoisier, saft trio, friedlander, string trio. seriously.
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moon_musick wrote:
well, it's not that they're bad. it's just that they're nowhere near that good what troubles me. i think i heard them all, masada book two i mean, and after listening to some particular album i rarely remember any melodies/motifs. i like various projects by Zorn, The Bribe, some filmworks, classical stuff like Duras, Aporias, Redbird, Chimeras, perhaps even Madness, Love & Mystycism. Electric Masada's fine, a bit too dense orchestration for my taste, but otherwise it's really nice. new Bar Kokhba releases are much less interesting to me though. perhaps he got more consistent as a composer, i guess many may say that - there's usually a specific mood and musical form dominating an entire release nowadays, tracks are more similar. it might be good, but somehow doesn't seem so, to me, as i can't remember particular tracks and for the masada book one i can name lots of tracks i like.
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Sckxyss wrote:
I haven't heard too much of book two, but Lucifer is fantastic. Not as noisy, sure, but I've still never heard such a well composed mixture of jazz, klezmer and blues before that.
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moon_musick wrote:
masada book one is actually the best stuff he ever wrote, besides first two naked city albums. nowadays it's mostly easy listening stuff, and unfortunately quite often it's not very entertaining. masada quartet studio stuff has it all - well composed pieces, nice melodies, virtuoso playing, a variety of moods and above all, there's always something noisy, a bit unsettling, some hint of avantgarde, which makes you remember you're listening to zorn and not some mediocre ad music composer. book two has lost it. it's not very imaginative, all the noisy stuff's gone and now it sounds like hundred other people, well orchestrated, polished and boring. naked city is dead for a long time, painkiller live without mick harris was not very groovy and overall boring too. several more albums like that and i will probably quit checking new stuff by zorn.
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sarsonlastfm wrote:
Experimentalists One & All, You may enjoy my project: www.last.fm/music/The+SARS+Virus FREE RAW MATERIALS!!! Fancy Contributing? SG
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ebuzerr wrote:
her yerinden öpüyorum john zorn
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WillOtheWisp666 wrote:
"80% of Zorn's stuff is pure gold, the other 20% is great too." Yeah, I think for me the other 20% would be Masada Book One. I mean, it's awesome, but I don't enjoy it like I enjoy his other stuff. And Filmworks is really good there's some genius albums on there, but most of his other stuff is better.
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WillOtheWisp666 wrote:
fuck you, stupid trolling sluts.
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Master_ov_Khaos wrote:
80% of Zorn's stuff is pure gold, the other 20% is great too.
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ebuzerr wrote:
hayır cidden o değil de ne içiyosan ben de istiyorum be güzel abim
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WillOtheWisp666 wrote:
I disagree: 0% of his stuff is pretentious fluff, and the other 900% is pure gold from beyond the reaches of the universe.
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John Zorn
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Femina
20 Oct 2009 | from blog.myspace.com/johnzorn
John Zorn : Femina Structured as a colorful tribute to women in the Arts, Femina is a triumphant return to the file card technique that has produced some of Zorn's most shockingly original composition. …
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25 Sep 2009 | from blog.myspace.com/johnzorn -
23 Aug 2009 | from blog.myspace.com/johnzorn -
18 Jul 2009 | from blog.myspace.com/johnzorn
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