John Zorn: Classic or Dud?

Josh - will check that out, I've been a bit of a grump wrt Zorn in recent years but feel that I'm coming back around again, the London birthday concert a couple of months ago was fantastic.

WGW - was it all good? I'd like to have seen SC3 doing Masada

It was pretty phenomenal

It was supposed to be 3.5 hours, so the nearly FIVE HOUR performance did, in fact, feel like a marathon, complete with exhaustion

Obviously, for me, the rockcentric stuff was the best — Secret Chiefs 3, Abraxas, Krakower, and Electric Masada who might be the best working American rock band — especially since it was so monstrously loud in that room. Watching/hearing older folks cover their ears and complain to each other was a rare treat you usually only get to see on sitcoms, so it had that extra element. On the other end of the spectrum, it was the second time I've seen Feldman/Courvosier duo and I really love the kind of broken chamber music feel that Pareles pointed out. (Their Masada CD is really good too) Zorn didn't actually play until the very last band, so hearing his familiar sax sound after however many hours was like a jolt of electricity.

I'm pulling it in now, if anybody wants a W3Transf3r link PM me.

I bought the Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz: Abraxas Book of Angels 19 after seeing em at Masada Marathon and it is blazing

http://www.spin.com/articles/john-zorn-mike-patton-met-museum-of-art/

The whole day at the Met Museum from open to close... in 77 seconds:
http://www.spin.com/articles/john-zorn-mike-patton-met-museum-of-art/

I lost track of the Filmworks series several volumes in, but wow, is this perfectly Komeda-meets-Morricone-a-rific:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYOS-tx0vHE

this 'in lambeth' william blake tribute is fantastic. reminds me of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9zLcHSilHY

How many Zorn CDs does an ilxor have in their house?

i only ever physically owned naked city

I "physically" own naked city and masada live in sevilla

50 on the dot, incl. 6 multi-disc sets, incl. the Parachute Years box

But none in the last 8-9 years

I have all 7 CDs by the Moonchild band, and the 4CD Painkiller anthology. That's it.

I used to have a dozen cassettes, then dozens of Tzadik and Avant and Elektra CDs. Masada and Naked City were a huge hunk. And Film series. Now all is digital.

Kristallnacht
Bar Kohkba
The Circle Maker
Naked City
Astronome
Six Litanies for Heliogabalus
Chimeras

I think that's all I have. Not sure where else to go with him. The Bar Kohkba discs are easily my favourites.

Pretty much everything Masada and Masada-related is worthwhile, esp. Circle Maker and Bar Kohkba.

formerly about 6 cds which went missing during a house move and I bought the Spillane/Albert Collins album on vinyl way back. About a gazillion digital albums.

About a gazillion digital albums.

^

Tzadik is getting more and more a Zorn-only outlet it seems, save for some new groups. The back catalogue is huge so I´m still discovering great new things.

Last summer I bought Zorn´s Filmworks 3, a pretty good cd (lots of great guitar work). The duo-cd with Bobby Previte (Euclyd´s Nightmare) is quite accessible and I´m now getting into the early game pieces work as 'New Traditions in East Asian Bar Bands´ and 'Cobra'. As a composer, I can see that his way of composing hasn´t changed radically as it´s still short blocks with lots of things happening, but things have certainly have become more refined and working with a pool of musicians that know what he wants works really well (on 'What Thou Wilt' for example). On ´Rimbaud´ he started mixing composed music with improvised music.

There´s a teaser of a recent studio session on the Tzadik twitter account with Ribot and some other musicians that made me curious.

I also posted this to Tzadik thread but I mention it on here as well; Aram Bajakian's brilliant and seemingly underrated There Were Flowers Also In Hell lp from last year absolutely shreds.

this sounds great

Klezmerson: Amon: The Book Of Angels Volume 24 [#8328]
Get ready to be blown out of your seat! Klezmerson has created one of the most astonishing installments of the entire Angels series--a spectacular reading of Masada material drawing upon the rich tradition of Mexican music from Oaxaca to Veracruz. Touching upon Henry Mancini, Xavier Cugat, Psychedelia and so much more, this is without doubt one of the wildest, most creative, flamboyant and masterful readings of Masada material since the Secret Chiefs 3. The work of a maestro in total control of his craft, Amon takes Masada to unimagined places! Essential!

LOL, Volume 24.

Essential!

22 + 23 were both essential imho so i wouldn't be surprised if the trend continues

i meant 21 + 22. i didn't love 23 as much

Just sayin', once your series (one of several, not including a deluge of other projects featuring permutations of the usual suspects) hits the two dozen mark, even "essential!" becomes a tough sell.

i have a whole mess of Masada & Zorn cds in my basement from college years ('99 - '03). a couple of those live Masada discs will be worth digging up (the ones with good sound, because i know a couple of them were not great at all). a bunch of other Tzadik stuff too (Cyro Baptista, Milford Graves, etc).

Filmworks ultimately hit, what, 25 volumes? I've heard many, if not most of them, and they are all great, possibly even essential, if you're into Quine, or Ribot or Friedlander whomever. But jesus, 25 volumes! And that's just one hunk of the world's biggest musical iceberg.

i remember reading that he was starting a book 3 series soon?

Just this week I discovered Zorn contributed to a Kurt Weill tribute after listening to the BBC Jazz Files documentary. I also bought ´More News for Lulu' recently.

News on Book 3

Masada, a repertory Zorn has been creating for more than two decades now, will be completed with this third installment. As he explained, the first book contained 205 compositions, the second 316 and the third will have 92, for a total of 613 tunes: the number of mitzvoth, or commandments, in the Torah.

His next release in the Hermetic Organ series was recorded at St Paul's church in Huddersfield, reet Town of Culture we are! It won't be as good as the Áine O'Dwyer church cleaners recordings where you can hear the buzz of vacuum cleaners and visitors talking in the background to her beautiful playing in St Mark's Church in Islington.

Kurt Weill tribute

Yeah, "Lost in the Stars," the first of those all-star Hal Wilner projects.

I like that Aine O'Dwyer!

mine are

Bar Kokhba

Merzbow - 1930

the 3 Eyvind Kang CDs

Kletka Red

so six? feel like there's one I'm forgetting about

o right Kang's Grass is on Tzadik, also have the Maryanne Amacher and Terry Riley's Aleph

the Aine O'Dwyer is the best thing i've heard so far this year

I wasn't being disdainful of the Áine O'Dwyer album, it is beautiful.

i agree - it's gorgeous.

Yeah, it's great—I reviewed it for The Wire (next issue, probably). The requests for fewer long low tones are hilarious.

The new Book of Angels vol 28 with the Nova Express Quintet is totally ace. I haven't been much bothered about Zorn for ages but this is lush. Lol just noticed on the tzadik site that I'm behind the times, Vol 29. came out in June.

seventeen releases so far this year ! anybody keeping up ?

https://johnzornresource.com/discography

really been enjoying the "hermetic organ" series. here's vol. 6:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhsPT6AWAGI

John Zorn - The Hermetic Organ Vol. 6 - For Edgar Allan Poe

I'm a huge fan of John Zorn, and yet, I'm not sure I've heard anything he's done for a few years, at least not since all the Masada/anniversary stuff. So I'm probably, oh, 300 releases behind.

All the Simulacrum albums are really good. The two albums (so far) by Insurrection, a quartet featuring Lage Lund and Matt Hollenberg on guitars, Trevor Dunn on bass, and Kenny Grohowski on drums are also really good.

the whole beriah songbook is excellent (or at least the albums i've heard so far - sofia rei, zion80, abraxas, klezmerson, a couple others)

TRACTATUS MUSICO-PHILOSOPHICUS-PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS FROM THE INVISIBLE THEATRE

^^^

was listening to this one with the mouthful of a title the other day and it's good stuff, another one where he actually plays alto sax on it.

the other one with him playing alto sax (which has been a rarity in recent years) I'm thinking of was from last year and I've forgot the title but I think it was from the Burroughs inspired series and was very good stuff.

cool, thanks for the responses !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uN8A3TljOk

John Zorn rare interviews in his apartment

the one from last year i was trying to recall was In A Convex Mirror

if i'm not mistaken he's also playing sax (and organ simultaneously) on a number of the "hermetic" pieces

well it is easy get lost with someone so ridiculously prolific!

indeed ! but now i find it's confirmed by tzadik:

Including some extended moments with Zorn playing both organ and saxophone simultaneously, the improvisation is intense and varied, with a remarkable compositional arch and wildly dramatic changes of color and timbre. The saxophone blends beautifully with the organ, standing out at times while Zorn plays the organ with his feet, hands and elbows.

John Zorn : The Hermetic Organ Volume 8—For Antonin Artaud

i thought there was sax on vol. 6 but apparently not

x-post Did he not remove his kitchen, to use the space for his record and comic collection? "Sure, I can eat out!"

I have about 20 of his albums. His output is hilariously prolific, but you can pick and choose styles and it's mostly good stuff.