Jazz Articles about John Zorn

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John Zorn/Jamie Saft Trio: Astaroth, Book of Angels Volume 1: Jamie Saft Trio Plays Masada Book Two

by Celeste Sunderland
September 12, 2005

Astaroth. The word itself can only be spoken with a gleam in the speaker's eye, a twitch of the eyebrow. It's as if within those eight letters, those three syllables, lies the power of enchantment. With Astaroth: Book of Angels Volume 1, the Jamie Saft Trio takes on ten compositions from John Zorn's Masada Book Two. In addition to Astaroth, nine other heavenly creatures lend their names to each track, each equally exotic in its ancient sanctity.Once the ...

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John Zorn/Bar Kokhba Sextet: 50th Birthday Celebration Volume 11

by John Kelman
August 21, 2005

Tzadik has already culled ten widely varied live releases from saxophonist/composer John Zorn's month-long 50th birthday celebration two years ago at Tonic in New York. Surprisingly enough, there are still more than a few to come. It should be testament enough that a single artist has created such a broad spectrum of work and equally diverse musical contexts in which to present it. But the consistently high quality of these releases really hammers home just how much of a cottage ...

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John Zorn: Masada Anniversary Edition, Vol. 4: Masada Recital

by Jeff Stockton
May 4, 2005

I suppose that since John Zorn plays alto saxophone and improvisation has played a crucial part in his music over the years, by convention he could be described as a “jazz musician. But as a composer he has been anything but conventional, drawing on myriad influences that range from film scores and cartoon themes to Braxton and Ornette and every culture within range of a recording microphone. Zorn doesn't play on Masada Recital. Instead, pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and ...

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John Zorn/Naked City: Complete Studio Recordings

by Mark Corroto
April 12, 2005

The year was 1990, the US and Iraq were posturing, and the American president was also named George Bush. George the 1st said, “This aggression will not stand --dividing the country between protestations of “no blood for oil and, well, conservative “freedom fighters.

I don't know who drew the line in the sand. Who made it “us" versus “them." But like the moldy fig debates some fifty years ago, the uptown vs. downtown distinction was made in ...

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The Stone: John Zorn's Latest Downtown Venture

by Sean Patrick Fitzell
April 7, 2005

It's a common refrain: there aren't enough places to play. Lately, it seems truer than ever, as several venerable clubs stare down financial hardships and possible eviction, while others have been forced to close, move, or change their programming to court a wider audience.In such a climate, only the uncompromisingly independent composer/saxophonist John Zorn would defy the circumstances and open a new performance venue. This month, he unveils The Stone, a space dedicated to creative music located at ...

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John Zorn: Filmworks XV: The Protocols of Zion

by John Kelman
March 11, 2005

Composer/saxophonist/pianist John Zorn's recent entries in his Filmworks series have demonstrated a distinct mellowing. But given that his recent series of 50th Birthday Concert releases have covered ground from the generally accessible Masada String Trio to the more outrageous Hemophiliac and raucous Electric Masada, they mark an artist whose stylistic diversity never loses touch with his personal voice. Zorn simply aims to make music that fits specific contexts and concepts.

Filmworks XV: Protocols of Zion is Zorn's score for a ...

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Tzadik's 50th Birthday Celebration Vol. 2 & 7

by Kurt Gottschalk
December 18, 2004

The avant-savvy marketing of Tzadik came to a head with the 10th anniversary of Masada coming on the 50th birthday of the band's leader (the band premiered as the Thieves Quartet during John Zorn's 40th birthday monthlong love-in at the old Knitting Factory). Special series of CDs have marked each anniversary, all coming to a head when the ten-year-old came to the fifty-year-old's party. It's a sort of hypercelebration, putting a benchmark on a band that Zorn has fronted for ...