Saturday To Raise Your Horns For John Zorn

September 28th, 2013 at 7:07am
Kip Wingerschmidt

I’m guessing not too many of you are familiar with avant-garde/experimental composer/arranger/producer/multi-instrumentalist John Zorn. Yes, Zorn has worked largely in the jazz/classical world, but he has many ties to heavy music as well. Most notably, he has collaborated with acrobatic vocalist Mike Patton in several incarnations — for one, Zorn produced the first Mr. Bungle album back in 1991 — and one of Zorn’s many groups, Naked City, which sometimes featured Yamatsuka Eye from the Boredoms or Patton in a vocalist role, was a sort of grindcore-influenced exercise in controlled chaos spanning many genres (from speed metal to free jazz to electrified funk to down-home country and beyond) and often flipping such sounds on a dime.

Zorn also had a grindcore/free jazz outfit called Painkiller (most active in the 90s) with the inimitable Bill Laswell on guitar, and in 2006 formed a hardcore/noise band featuring Patton, bassist Trevor Dunn (also from Bungle and more recently Melvins Lite), and drummer Joey Baron, which was called Moonchild Trio. Not to mention a gazillion projects in the jazz/classical/noise realms. Homeboy never stops!

A good deal of Zorn’s work can be quite challenging, but with such a prolific breadth of music, there is a wide array of sounds to cull through and something for everyone. Okay, maybe not everyone. But plenty to choose from.

And now in celebration of Zorn turning the big 6-0, the Metropolitan Museum is hosting a full day (10am-8:30pm) of various performances orchestrated and curated by Zorn himself TODAY. He will perform in a couple of pieces, but most will feature all different musicians — including a solo voice performance by Mike Patton in The Temple of Dendur at 7pm (!) that I am particularly psyched for. Patton will also be on hand Sunday night at (le) poisson rouge for another couple sets of music with Zorn, Trevor Dunn, John Medeski, Marc Ribot, and many more.