John Zorn

Known for SoundBorn 1953-09-02 (age 72)Manhattan, New York, USA

John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist, and multi-instrumentalist with hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, and producer across a variety of genres including jazz, rock, hardcore, classical, surf, metal, soundtrack, ambient, and improvised music. He incorporates diverse styles in his compositions, which he identifies as avant-garde or experimental. Zorn was described by Down Beat as "one of our most important composers". Zorn established himself within the New York City downtown music movement in the mid-1970s, performing with musicians across the sonic spectrum and developing experimental methods of composing new music. After releasing albums on several independent US and European labels, Zorn signed with Elektra Nonesuch and received wide acclaim with the release of The Big Gundown, an album reworking the compositions of Ennio Morricone. He attracted further attention worldwide with the release of Spillane in 1987 and Naked City in 1990. After spending almost a decade travelling between Japan and the US, he made New York his permanent base and established his own record label, Tzadik, in the mid-1990s. Tzadik enabled Zorn to maintain independence from the mainstream music industry and ensured the continued availability of his growing catalog of recordings, allowing him to prolifically record and release new material, issuing several new albums each year, as well as promoting the work of many other musicians. Zorn has led the hardcore bands Naked City and Painkiller, the Jewish music-inspired jazz quartet Masada, composed 613 pieces as part of the three Masada songbooks that have been performed by an array of groups, composed concert music for classical ensembles and orchestras, and produced music for opera, sound installations, film and documentary. Zorn has undertaken many tours of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, often performing at festivals with many other musicians and ensembles that perform his diverse output.Read more

Movies & web series

Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags

365 Day Project

Die Kunst des Erinnerns – Simon Wiesenthal

White and Lazy

Shaolin Ulysses: Kung Fu Monks in America

Credits Included: A Video In Red And Green

Little Lieutenant

Masada: Live at Tonic 1999

Despite Treblinka

Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers During WWII

Sabbath in Paradise

Step Across the Border

Maohgai

Thieves Quartet

Gotham

Put More Blood Into the Music

In the Mirror of Maya Deren

Zorn III (2018 – 2022)

Zorn I (2010 – 2016)

Zigrail

Zorn II (2016 – 2018)

Well Then There Now

Bare Room

Workingman's Death

Invitation to a Suicide

The Port of Last Resort

Mechanics Of The Brain

Hollywood Hotel

The Revenge of the Dead Indians

A Bookshelf on Top of the Sky: 12 Stories About John Zorn

Rising Tones Cross

Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis

The Golden Boat

Belle de Nature

The Treatment

Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise

The Black Glove

The Elegant Spanking

Arcana

Notes on Marie Menken

She Must Be Seeing Things

Between Science and Garbage

Latin Boys Go to Hell

Tears of Ecstasy

John Zorn: The Hermetic Organ Volume 10 - Bozar, Brussels

Generació Kibbutz

The Viking of Sixth Avenue

La ronde