John Zorn- Awesome Free Jazz/Avant Garde Artist
 

Thanks again to those who helped me with my project I was able to discover a lot of new bands with my knowledge of avant garde. Here is an important player, John Zorn!

John Zorn - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


YouTube - John zorn - batman (naked city)
YouTube - John Zorn / Moonchild - Possession

Yeah John Zorn is basically a genius.

Zorn is really hit-or-miss with me. I mean, he's put out some of my favorite albums (Naked City and Circle Maker), but he's also put out a lot stuff I can't stand (his recent albums with Mike Patton, but it is really Patton that annoys me on those albums rather than the composition).

I already made a thread on him in the Jazz section. .

Galletas, galletas, galletas! Inside joke from Spanish class.

I've only heard Naked City, which kind of sucks. I definitely need to hear some other Zorn stuff.

I'm willing to hear anything without that prick Patton.

yeah mike patton's pretty annoying

What would be the must have starter album for John Zorn. I have only heard his works with Patton and the music seemed overshadowed by the screechings of Mike.

I love his tribute to Ornette Coleman called Spy vs Spy.It`s wild to say the least!Two saxes,two drummers,one bassist.

I would go for Naked City- Naked City. Pretty easy to get into.

That's one of his more accessible and better Jazz albums, so if you didn't like that, I'm not sure the rest is going to fare much better.

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What's wrong with Patton?

What's right with Patton?

Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Fantomas, Lovage, Peeping Tom, Astronome.

Quite a bit, I'd say.

I have a few of John Zorn's albums. The last album I played was Torture Garden by Naked City. The singer Yamatsuka Eye sure makes a short sharp presence felt in a 42 track CD with the vast majority of the tracks under a minute.
Experimental music at it's most challenging.

I dunno.

I've relistened to Naked City several times since I posted that in an attempt to get more into it, and...I would say I really like different parts of the album, and some of it is quality stuff. However, large portions of the album are just useless and filler material, which makes the whole thing an unpleasant listen. I will give some other Zorn stuff a go some day though.

Yup. Also Tomahawk.

I listened to Hemophiliac by John Zorn on Youtube and cried out in pain. Apparently Mike patton does "vocals" on it. <.<

So yeah, I'm gonna look this thread to find something "good" by him and see what I think.

Hemophiliac is good, n00b.

Ah, what a tangled web of musical taste we weave.

Remember, music does not have to have a nice, sweet melody and harmony. It does not need to have a set rhythm or structure to be good. I like Hemophiliac because it is thought provoking and intriguing. I prefer Hemophiliac over most mainstream pop songs.

That's right Greengenes (lovely Zappa song BTW).

I think Naked City is definately his best stuff. I've got a pretty sweet Fred Frith/John Zorn live album, quite brutal in places

Hes a great musician, its just easy to get too much of him. I mean, he is everywhere, its scary. Left 4 Dead zombie sounds: Mike Patton. I Am Legend zombie sounds: Mike Patton. The Darkness voices: Mike Patton. Portal Anger Sphere sounds: Mike Patton. I mean, he's even voicing the main character in Bionic commando. Plus he's a guest musician on so many avant-garde albums, its insane.

Its easy to get tooo much of him these days. Sometimes its nice to take a break (although its hard too when he's in every album and now almost every video game. I just started listening to Fantomas again after a while, and it sounds great.

I found this amazing Zorn clip on you-tube, sadly only 49 seconds long, with Milford Graves (astonishing free-jazz drummer for all time), Marc Ribot (king of the skronk guitar) and Lou Reed (tone freak)... I'm wishing for an album! There's a similar clip, 7 minutes but without Milford, that is also very good, and there's an album that's just Zorn and Reed plus sometimes Laurie Anderson

I only have Naked City which is pretty cool. I need to check out more, though I'm kind of afraid :C

I just downloaded some albums by Naked city, and I am just outright amazed. I'm loving this stuff. The only bad part about finding out about all of these amazing bands, is that people at my school irritate me even more. I swear, some day, when yet another person says "Dude, that drummer-guy from Slipknot is like the best drummer alive," I'm going to snap.

I can't wait to hear more of his Masada stuff though, from what I've seen and heard, I am really interested.

YouTube - Funny Games (2008) Intro - Intro to the 2008 version of Funny Games. I found it while searching around for some Naked city songs on youtube, it uses some music from Naked city in the movie. I'm thinking of seeing the movie, I remember seeing the trailers and it looked interesting, but just never got around to watching it. One of the funniest intros I've ever seen.

Yeah the electric Masada stuff, and a lot of his Filmworks are the best. I like the stuff with Mike Patton but I know... it is pretty brutal. Beats the hell out of most metal I think. But yeah he's done everything; not all of it is totally inspired.

Check out "The big gundown" thats a good getting into Zorn album.

His Masada stuff is more assessable Check out "Live in Sevilla"

Electric Masada is my fav. Zorn group (that he plays in) both there albums kick a**.

I love "Six Litanies for Heliogabalys" thats the best Zorn/Patton cd imo

Yesss Big Gundown might actually be my favorite Zorn... I can't believe I forgot to mention that.

I've come to the conclusion that this guy has a severe attention disorder because the stuff he puts out is completely mental in places. Think I'm gonna pick my way through his disco (sans Patton crap) later.

& i've just realized that Bill Frisell is in the backing band. Oh my.

Just saw him live at Yoshi's, I was in the front row, literally right in front of him, close enough to see what color his tallis was.

John Zorn and Mike Patton are my heroes, they took music to new extremes. I think combined, they've explored every music genre out there.
I love Naked City and Painkiller, complete ownage. Got Moonchild Trio album, pretty weird but enjoyable for me. Not to mention Hemophiliac, ultra weird and awesome. Zorn is a sax master.
I've Masada's first, but still need to check out the rest.

Moonchild is weird in that it's more like vocalizing an episode of Looney Tunes for insane adults. Like us.

Here's Patton's part in Moonchild - abrasive, yes. But shut your eyes, and imagine Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote running around and fighting and so on the whole time. Or whatever your imagination comes up with. But that's what it's all about...

It's absolutely unique. And tremendously difficult. Note he is 'reading' these 'notes'. And turning pages. I wonder what the transcript looks like:

"BWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" "chug a chug a chug a whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa "

Zorn cannot really do wrong. Even if not for his vast breadth in compositions his insane dedication to the avant-jazz genre is practically unparalleled.

That video of Patton is nutsoids.
Gotta say Spy vs. Spy, Torture Garden, Alef, and the Circle Maker are Zorn's best. I don't really know, I have around half of his collection and I STILL have not listened to all of it. I guess it's not too bad a thing to have to listen to Zorn.

IAO is ****ing fantastic, as well. Randomly playing songs and this popped up. Reminded me how Zorn can do anything, and do it right:

He's one of my favorite jazz musicians. Saw him twice at The Knitting Factory in NYC, back in the 90's. Once with Naked City, and once with Painkiller. Great stuff!

All night studying with John Zorn, nice.