John Zorn

John Zorn的音乐丰富多变，被标志为美国现代音乐的后现代主义者。喜欢卡通电影，屡屡将悲壮史诗的电影音乐改编成噪音爵士，颇令人发指。Zorn极爱拼贴各种音乐，举凡古典，通俗，前卫，独奏，二重，三重，多重，朗诗，尖叫，哭喊，音乐与表演艺术的界线在John Zorn的作品与表现中崩解于无形。
 
90年代初John Zorn开始寻求犹太人的文化根，结合优秀的纽约音乐家，组成Masada乐团，先由日本唱片公司发行数张昂贵的西低，而后在美国创立自己的厂牌Tzadik，积极推动“激进犹太文化”，并有系统的重新发行其他类型的创作，Masada在美发行第一套专集Bar Kokhba，获摇滚杂志Spin选为1996年十大专集之一，以钢管乐器表现为主，即兴演奏有浓厚民族风味的爵士乐。
 
另附：前卫爵士音乐唱片品牌介绍——Tzadik Records
 
TZADIK:JOHN ZORN 在纽约和东京同时开设的前卫品牌。除了他自己的作品外,也出版了DEREK BAILEY、FRED FRITH、LEO SMITH以及日本先锋艺术家的大量唱片。是最极端也是最前卫的90年代实验声学厂牌之一。
 
厂牌所出产的范畴包括：Avant Garde、Free Improvisation、Transgressions、tribal/ethnic、Ambient、Minimal。分为6个系列“作曲家”、“犹太文薄ⅰ靶氯毡尽薄ⅰ暗缬芭淅帧薄ⅰ暗蛋浮薄?“疯子边缘”，8个专栏。内里超过100张唱片简介和70多首的选段试听。
 
虽说是日本的地下公司，除本土日本艺人之外，旗下所签的大部分是纽约的先锋艺术家。且多数属于Improvisers（即兴）作曲家，例如前卫音乐鬼才Rodd Keith、 Sample实验大师David Shea（旗下发表过颠峰之作“Hsi-Yu Chi 西游记” （David shea & 吴蛮 & John Zorn）、激进原始派Ikue Mori、用Saxophonist将 日本民乐和俄罗斯音乐通婚的东欧前卫作曲家Compostels、错乱蓝调之王Rodd Keith...当然也有杰出的日本实验音乐高手，如大友良英、灰野敬二(Keiji Haino) 。除此之外，相当部分推荐的唱片都属珍贵的临时性跨地域合作。此唱片公司极其注重即兴实验噪音的艺术追求。
 
It is possible to call John Zorn a jazz musician, but that would be much too limiting a description. While jazz feeling is present in a good deal of his work, and the idea of improvisation is vitally important to him, Zorn doesnt operate within any idioms framework, drawing from just about any musical, cultural, or noise source that a fellow who grew up in the TV and LP eras could experience. This eclecticism gone haywire can result in such wildly jump-cutting works as Spillane, whose plethora of diverse and incompatible styles makes for a listening experience akin to constantly punching the station buttons on a car radio.
 
Zorn believes that the age of the composer as an autonomous musical mind had come to an end in the late 20th century; hence the collaborative nature of much of his work, both with active musicians and music and styles of the past. Like Mel Brooks, the zany film director, many of Zorns works are tributes to certain musical touchstones of his — such as Ennio Morricone, Sonny Clark, and Ornette Coleman — all filtered through his unpredictable hall of mirrors. While it would be foolhardy to single out a handful of dominant influences, Zorns music seems very close in spirit to that of Warner Bros. cartoon composer Carl Stalling, both in its transformation of found material and manic, antic moods.
 
This calculating wildman started playing the piano as a child before taking up the guitar and flute at age ten. By the time he was 14, Zorn had discovered contemporary classical music and began composing; his college years in St. Louis brought about his introduction to avant-garde jazz, particularly that of Anthony Braxton. He dropped out of college, settled in lower Manhattan, and began working with free improvisers, rock bands, and tape, sometimes working duck and bird calls into his arsenal. After putting out releases on tiny domestic and poorly distributed import labels, Zorn signed with Elektra-Nonesuch in the mid-80s, which increased his visibility considerably. Along the way, he has formed tribute bands to play the music of Coleman, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan, and others; featured musicians as diverse as Big John Patton, Tim Berne, Bill Frisell, and the Kronos Quartet; and assembled a group called Masada that merges Coleman with Jewish music. Jazz buffs should be directed to his Coleman tribute album Spy vs. Spy (Nonesuch), which makes exciting, thrashing, yet concise hashes of 17 Ornette tunes with a quintet.