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John Zorn

John Zorn

Sound

Biography

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.

Known For

Maohgai
8.0

Kishi is a 37-year-old personnel officer and fairly happy with work, wife and child. But he turns out to be susceptible to a more exciting life. Through his old schoolfriend Daimon he meets the attractive Yoshie and spends a sensational night of love with her. Kishi doesn't want to leave it at one night. On their second meeting, Daimon is also present and this night turns into a sado-masochistic ritual. A suppressed memory emerges in Kishi: once he raped an elderly woman with Daimon. Kishi again crossed a frontier this night and the relationship with his colleague Yuko also breaks boundaries. He slowly realises that his emotional life is taking a direction that he had never dreamed possible; Kishi moves into a new and dark world.

Maohgai

1993
The Treatment
5.9

Jake Singer is at loose ends in NYC, and neck deep in psychoanalysis with the outrageous Dr. Morales when he meets the enigmatic and beautiful widow Allegra Marshall.

The Treatment

2007
365 Day Project
10.0

This exhibition focuses on Jonas Mekas’ 365 Day Project, a succession of films and videos in calendar form. Every day as of January 1st, 2007 and for an entire year, as indicated in the title, a large public (the artist's friends, as well as unknowns) were invited to view a diary of short films of various lengths (from one to twenty minutes) on the Internet. A movie was posted each day, adding to the previously posted pieces, resulting altogether in nearly thirty-eight hours of moving images.

365 Day Project

2007
Thieves Quartet
8.0

Art gathers the ex-prisoners Jimmy and Mike with his girlfriend Jessica and presents a plan for kidnapping the daughter of a millionaire. The plan works perfectly and while waiting for the ransom in the border of Canada, ready to go to Rio de Janeiro, an incident happens with Jessica plus a betrayal in the group.

Thieves Quartet

1993
Tears of Ecstasy
2.8

A conceptual pinku film by renowned experimental artist Hiroyuki Oki, which is conceived of 60 shots which all are 60 seconds long and represent an absurdist take on the narrative and stylistic schemes of erotic cinema.

Tears of Ecstasy

1995
Invitation to a Suicide
7.0

Raised in an insular Polish immigrant neighborhood in Brooklyn where he's destined to become a poor baker like his father, Kaz Malek attempts to steal from a Russian mobster and run away with the girl of his dreams, Eva. Not cut out for a life of crime, he ends up with a $10,000 debt to the mobster who threatens to kill his father. Unable to pay or face his father's death, Kaz comes up with a novel plan: he'll hang himself and sell tickets to the show. He is surprised to find, however, that the mobster as well as the neighborhood are extremely supportive of this idea... not to mention his father. But even if he can sell the tickets will he really go through with it? By the time this dark comedy reaches its surprising conclusion, Kaz learns that sometimes embracing death is the only way to a better life.

Invitation to a Suicide

2005
The Revenge of the Dead Indians
7.0

This is a full-length documentary honoring the life and work of American composer and artist John Cage. Cage is considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. This documentary features interviews with various personalities from different fields as they introduce us to the life and work of this great American artist.

The Revenge of the Dead Indians

1993
The Port of Last Resort
7.0

Documentary that follows the lives of several Jewish refugees who fled to Shanghai during WWII.

The Port of Last Resort

1998
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
6.6

In this entrancing documentary on performance artist, photographer and underground filmmaker Jack Smith, photographs and rare clips of Smith's performances and films punctuate interviews with artists, critics, friends and foes to create an engaging portrait of the artist. Widely known for his banned queer erotica film Flaming Creatures, Smith was an innovator and firebrand who influenced artists such as Andy Warhol and John Waters.

Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis

2007
Shaolin Ulysses: Kung Fu Monks in America
9.0

Traces the journey of five kung fu monks in search of the American dream. Hailing from China's legendary Shaolin Temple, these Zen masters and kung fu stars have left their homeland to forge a new life and bring their special brand of martial arts to the west. Hear their personal stories (narrated by Beau Bridges) and watch in awe as they display some of their best moves.

Shaolin Ulysses: Kung Fu Monks in America

2003
She Must Be Seeing Things
5.5

Agatha is an international lawyer, Jo a filmmaker. The two women are lovers. While Jo is on the road showing her films, Agatha discovers and reads her diaries. Problems ensue as Agatha's transgressions lead to jealousy and a spiraling cycle of sexual obsession.

She Must Be Seeing Things

1987
In the Mirror of Maya Deren
7.5

Documentary about the life of avant-garde filmmaker Maya Deren, who led the independent film movement of the 1940s.

In the Mirror of Maya Deren

2002
Zorn I (2010 – 2016)
7.0

Mathieu Amalric’s film with John Zorn began as a European TV commission that was quickly abandoned in favor of something more intimate: an ongoing dialogue between two friends that will always be a work-in-progress.

Zorn I (2010 – 2016)

2023
Put More Blood Into the Music
7.8

PBS produced documentary in two parts: the first is dedicated to saxophonist and composer John Zorn; the second is about Sonic Youth at the height of their powers in 1988.

Put More Blood Into the Music

1988
A Bookshelf on Top of the Sky: 12 Stories About John Zorn
6.8

A rare peek into the working methods of John Zorn. Filmed over a ten year period, this documentary includes live footage of Masada, Naked City, Cobra, as well as improvisations, his classical work and rare interviews. A prize winner at European festivals, this film documents Heuermann's very personal, fifteen year odyssey with the music of John Zorn.

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

2002
Zigrail
7.3

André and Kim are a young couple living together in Montréal. André works with his family in Bungee jumping business while Kim must go to study in Turkey. André stays at home until he received a call from her girlfriend announcing that she's pregnant and she is opting for abortion. To convince her not to, André begins a long journey to Istanbul as he goes deep in his mind to confront his life and fears.

Zigrail

1995
Between Science and Garbage
5.2

A whirlwind of improvisation combines the images of animator Pierre Hébert with the avant-garde sound of techno whiz Bob Ostertag in this singular multimedia experience, a hybrid of live animation and performance art.

Between Science and Garbage

2004
Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise
5.9

A story told by director Ken Jacobs but without conventional storyline. Using a modified magic lantern, an early type of image projector developed in the 17th century, he morphs, flickering images that look like photo-negatives.

Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise

2005
Workingman's Death
7.0

Is heavy manual labour disappearing or is it just becoming invisible? Where can we still find it in the 21st century? Workingman's Death follows the trail of the HEROES in the illegal mines of the Ukraine, sniffs out GHOST among the sulphur workers in Indonesia, finds itself face to face with LIONS at a slaughterhouse in Nigeria, mingles with BROTHERS as they cut a huge oil tanker into pieces in Pakistan, and joins Chinese steel workers in hoping for a glorious FUTURE.

Workingman's Death

2005
The Elegant Spanking
5.7

This nouveau, sleekly produced film features the story of a unique lesbian S&M relationship between a mistress and her maid. Enter their fantasy: a seductive chain of nostalgically hot images, shocking, amusing and dripping with sexual perversion. The masquerade of dominance and submission is performed in the spirit of decadence, sexual freedom and spiritual abandonment. Goddess Rosemary is a hypnotic dancer with a beautiful body who seduces and punishes her Kitty. She knows how to snap the desire, feed the soul and materialize the unrelenting passion of kitty.

The Elegant Spanking

1995