John Zorn

Latest Articles

Dynamite with a laser beam

Is this the real life? Or is this just fantasy? Whatever you do, don't ask Sean Slaughter.
Wax Tablet
By PORTLAND PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | November 25, 2011

A talk with legendary producer and musician Martin Bisi

Since opening BC Studio in Brooklyn in 1979, Martin Bisi has recorded dozens of records on the fringe of the avant-garde scene, including early Sonic Youth, Michael Gira's Swans and Angels of Light, and the cabaret breakout debut record from Boston's Dr
‘Tired of recording’
By NICHOLAS SCHROEDER | February 25, 2011

Netsky notes

Hankus Netsky founded the Klezmer Conservatory Band 30 years ago at New England Conservatory and sparked an American klezmer revival that continues to this day.
The KCB's main man talks Klezmer
By JON GARELICK | February 26, 2010

Jew note

Defining "Jewish" music is pretty much a fool's task — not much easier than defining jazz.
First Annual Boston Jewish Music Festival, plus the Klezmatics
By JON GARELICK | February 26, 2010

Midsummer madness

After a relatively quiet summer, I saw Boston Midsummer Opera's Cosí fan tutte at BU's Tsai Center. Then I raced out to Tanglewood for a Mark Morris program accompanied by Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax, a BSO matinee with Ma, and all six concerts in the annua
Mark Morris, Yo-Yo Ma, and the Festival of Contemporary Music at Tanglewood, Mozart in Boston, Meyerbeer at Bard
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | August 21, 2009

The old is new

Birdsongs of the Mesozoic bring back Roger
Birdsongs of the Mesozoic bring back Roger
By MATT PARISH | July 24, 2009

Accidental purist

In one of Karlheinz Stockhausen's weirdest creations, the ensemble is instructed to "play a sound with the certainty that you have an infinite amount of time and space." Stephen Drury doesn't mind that so much. But fasting for four days? "No."
Stephen Drury takes on Stockhausen
By MATT PARISH | February 18, 2009

Southern exposure

Multi-instrumentalist and Beat Circus patriarch Brian Carpenter has made his share of escapist music, but he's also written dozens of songs that confront real life.
Beat Circus's Brian Carpenter returns to his roots
By BARRY THOMPSON | January 06, 2009

A small, good thing

It's no surprise that Fred Frith, who's one of the world's leading improvising musicians and a wildly inventive composer, would form a group called Cosa Brava.
Fred Frith and Cosa Brava try songs for a change
By TED DROZDOWSKI | December 09, 2008

Sax-crazed

Sax solos: a symbol of musical excess from a bygone era when “ProTools” was something a plumber brought to the job.
No decade blew harder than the '80s
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | August 12, 2008

Drama manqué

Sporen , by the Dutch company Leine & Roebana, had two false beginnings before settling down to an hour of movement exploration.
Leine & Roebana at the ICA, Contrapose at Green Street
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | May 12, 2008

Week in the knees

“Jazz Week,” which runs April 26–May 4, tends to appropriate all events to its needs — if you’re playing, say, your regularly scheduled gig at Matt Murphy’s Pub this week, you’re part of Jazz Week.

Jazz Week kicks out the jams, plus Bley and Zorn

By JON GARELICK | April 28, 2008

Budding groves

More and more, museums are getting into the live-music scene.
Jazz in the clubs — and the museums
By JON GARELICK | March 11, 2008

Skimming the cream

Some of my favorite things from among the people, CDs, and performances I wrote about this year.
Jazz: 2007 in review
By JON GARELICK | December 17, 2007

Marc Ribot

If you know Ribot only through his brilliant sidemanning with Burnett and Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, you don’t really know Ribot.
Asmodeus: Book of Angels Volume 7 — Marc Ribot Plays Masada Book Two | Tzadik
By TED DROZDOWSKI | November 27, 2007

Going on sale: November 16, 2007

Moe., James Blunt, Chapel/Chapter, and more
Breaking news from the concert ticket trade
By GOING ON SALE | November 13, 2007

Road warrior

Plucked cello and the open road may suggest overly earnest guitar folk, but Friedlander’s music is as tough-minded and original as it is elegiac.
Erik Friedlander, Lily Pad, July 18, 2007
By JON GARELICK | July 24, 2007

iPhone home

Lines upon the Multimedia and Internet-enabled Mobile Phone Newly Produced by the Apple Corporation
Could be verse: poetry ripped from the headlines
By JAMES PARKER | July 06, 2007

Tango talk

Argentine tango has a strong tradition. Which is both good and bad news for Bernardo Monk.
Bernardo Monk steps out
By JON GARELICK | January 23, 2007

Visionary sounds

Sonic Youth, Andrew Hill, Bob Dylan, and more
A year in jazz and pop
By JIM MACNIE | December 20, 2006

Border crossings

An in-demand sidewoman brings her own thing to Newport. Jenny Scheinman, "Into the Clearing" (mp3) Jenny Scheinman, "Tango for Luna" (mp3)
Jenny Scheinman’s gypsy jazz
By JON GARELICK | August 09, 2006

Super graphics

There must be a better word than “graffiti” to describe the site-specific, often text-embracing, street-smart art of the intrepid artists who use their environment as their canvas, plastering buildings, street signs, decaying walls, and skinny lamp posts
“SPOTHUNTERS,” Ryan McGinness, and Christian Marclay
By RANDI HOPKINS | February 22, 2006

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