John Zorn is an American composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist, and multi-instrumentalist. His music crosses genres that include jazz, rock, hardcore, classical, surf, metal, soundtrack, ambient, and improvised music. Zorn incorporates diverse styles and compositional methods in his works, which he identifies as avant-garde or experimental. In 2013, Down Beat described Zorn as "one of our most important composers".
Derek Bailey was an English avant-garde guitarist and an important figure in the free improvisation movement. Bailey abandoned conventional performance techniques found in jazz, exploring atonality, noise, and whatever unusual sounds he could produce with the guitar. Much of his work was released on his own label Incus Records. In addition to solo work, Bailey collaborated frequently with other musicians and recorded with collectives such as Spontaneous Music Ensemble and Company.
Masada is a musical group with rotating personnel led by American saxophonist and composer John Zorn since the early 1990s.
Guy Klucevsek is an American-born accordionist and composer. Klucevsek is one of relatively few accordion players active in new music, jazz and free improvisation.
George Emanuel Lewis is an American composer, electronic performer, installation artist, trombone player, and scholar in the fields of improvisation and experimental music. He has been a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since 1971 and is a pioneer of computer music.
Anthony John Medeski is an American jazz keyboard player and composer. Medeski is a veteran of New York's 1990s avant-garde jazz scene and is known popularly as a member of Medeski Martin & Wood. He plays the acoustic piano and an eclectic array of keyboards, including the Hammond B3 organ, melodica, mellotron, clavinet, ARP String Ensemble, Wurlitzer electric piano, Moog Voyager Synthesizer, Wurlitzer 7300 Combo Organ, Vox Continental Baroque organ, and Yamaha CS-1 Synthesizer, among others. When playing acoustic piano, Medeski usually plays the Steinway piano and is listed as a Steinway Artist.
Erik Friedlander is an American cellist and composer based in New York City.
Filmworks 1986–1990 features the first released film scores of John Zorn. The album was originally released on the Japanese labels Wave and Eva in 1990, on the Nonesuch Records label in 1992, and subsequently re-released on Zorn's own label, Tzadik Records, in 1997 after being out of print for several years.
"For Zorn, filmscores have always been a place to experiment, and the FilmWorks Series is in many ways a microcosm of his prodigious output. This original installment of the FilmWorks Series presents three scores ranging from punk-rockabilly ; a jazzy Bernard Herrmann fantasy; to a quirky classical/improv/world music amalgam for Raul Ruiz's bizarre film The Golden Boat. Zorn's infamous one-minute arrangement of Morricone's classic The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, is included as a bonus track. This is the place where it all began."
Sylvie Courvoisier is a composer, pianist and improviser.
Locus Solus is an album of improvisations by John Zorn and other musicians. Originally released as a double vinyl album on Rift records in 1983 it was re-released as a CD with additional tracks on Eva/Wave in 1990 and on Zorn's Tzadik Records label in 1997.
Songs from the Hermetic Theatre is an album of contemporary classical music by American composer and saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist John Zorn.
Hemophiliac is a limited edition album of improvised experimental music by John Zorn, Ikue Mori and Mike Patton. The album was released as a limited edition 2-CD set of 2,500 copies, personally autographed by Zorn, Patton and Mori, on Zorn's Tzadik label.
Chimeras is an album of contemporary classical music by American composer John Zorn featuring a 12 part piece inspired by Arnold Schoenberg's atonal composition "Pierrot Lunaire". In 2010 the album was revised and re-recorded, with an additional "Postlude".
In Search of the Miraculous is an album by composer John Zorn released as a part of Tzadik's Archival series in 2010.
Templars: In Sacred Blood is an album by John Zorn released in May 2012 on the Tzadik label. It is the sixth album by Zorn's Moonchild project.
The Hermetic Organ is an album by John Zorn, consisting of a single live improvisation on the Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ of St. Paul's Chapel at Columbia University, which was released on Tzadik Records in June 2012. The performance was held at 11 PM on the evening of December 9, 2011, which Zorn has noted was a full moon, as an encore to a "Composer Portrait" ensemble performance of his works held earlier that night at the Miller Theatre. It is the first release by Zorn to exclusively document his solo improvisations on the organ, his first instrument. In 2014, Zorn released a second volume of improvisations, The Hermetic Organ Vol. 2.
Rimbaud is an album by John Zorn. The album was released on Zorn's own label Tzadik Records in August 2012. It was dedicated to French poet Arthur Rimbaud.
A Vision in Blakelight is an album by John Zorn recorded in New York City in December 2011 and released on the Tzadik label in 2012. The album is inspired by the works of William Blake.
In Lambeth is an album composed by John Zorn and performed by the Gnostic Trio, recorded in New York City in April 2013 and released on the Tzadik label in December 2013. The album is the third by the trio following The Gnostic Preludes (2012) and The Mysteries (2013). Its title quotes from William Blake's poem Jerusalem.
Psychomagia is the second album by Abraxas, led by Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz, performing compositions written by John Zorn, which was recorded in December 2013 and released on the Tzadik label.
