John Zorn

Latest Articles

Dynamite with a laser beam

Wax Tablet
Is this the real life? Or is this just fantasy? Whatever you do, don't ask Sean Slaughter.
By PORTLAND PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | November 23, 2011

A talk with legendary producer and musician Martin Bisi

‘Tired of recording’
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 Dresden Dolls.
By NICHOLAS SCHROEDER | February 23, 2011

Netsky notes

The KCB's main man talks Klezmer
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.
By JON GARELICK | February 25, 2010

Jew note

First Annual Boston Jewish Music Festival, plus the Klezmatics
Defining "Jewish" music is pretty much a fool's task — not much easier than defining jazz.
By JON GARELICK | February 25, 2010

Midsummer madness

Mark Morris, Yo-Yo Ma, and the Festival of Contemporary Music at Tanglewood, Mozart in Boston, Meyerbeer at Bard
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 annual Festival of Contemporary Music.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | September 29, 2009

The old is new

Birdsongs of the Mesozoic bring back Roger Miller
Birdsongs of the Mesozoic bring back Roger
By MATT PARISH | July 22, 2009

Accidental purist

Stephen Drury takes on Stockhausen
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."
By MATT PARISH | February 18, 2009

Southern exposure

Beat Circus's Brian Carpenter returns to his roots
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.
By BARRY THOMPSON | January 07, 2009

A small, good thing

Fred Frith and Cosa Brava try songs for a change
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.
By TED DROZDOWSKI | December 09, 2008

Sax-crazed

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

Drama manqué

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

Week in the knees

Jazz Week kicks out the jams, plus Bley and Zorn
“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.
By JON GARELICK | April 28, 2008

Budding groves

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

Skimming the cream

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

Marc Ribot

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

Going on sale: November 16, 2007

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

Road warrior

Erik Friedlander, Lily Pad, July 18, 2007
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.
By JON GARELICK | July 24, 2007

iPhone home

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

Tango talk

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

Visionary sounds

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

Border crossings

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

Super graphics

“SPOTHUNTERS,” Ryan McGinness, and Christian Marclay
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 with imagery by way of posters, stickers, markers, and spray paint.
By RANDI HOPKINS | February 22, 2006