I sometimes wonder if Mr. Bungle have been trolling their fans since day one. Their self-titled debut full-length, released in 1991 by Warner Brothers, is a blur of funk, ska, world music, and death metal that flips from Morbid Angel-influenced riffs to zany circus music and back on a dime. Formed by high school friends […]
Tag: John Zorn
Posted inMusic
Esteemed saxophone quartet Rova celebrates more than four decades of music and growth
Rova, which comprises saxophonists Jon Raskin, Bruce Ackley, Larry Ochs, and Steve Adams (who replaced Andrew Voigt in 1988), is the gold standard against which all other saxophone quartets must be measured. Each of its members has a distinct approach to his instrument and a personal aesthetic, and they’ve expressed them in settings as disparate […]
Posted inBlogs
The World Music Festival and more of the best things to do in Chicago this weekend
Fall Out Boy at Wrigley Field and more goings-on 9/7-9/9
Posted inMusic
The Art Institute presents a dazzling 12-performance showcase of music by John Zorn throughout its galleries
In recent years the sprawling variety and prolificacy of works by musician, composer, and community force John Zorn have been showcased in appropriately ambitious, multiconcert marathon events presented all around the world with enormous casts of musicians. Last month I experienced one of the largest such efforts when Jazz em Agosto, in Lisbon, Portugal, turned over […]
Posted inMusic
John Zorn explores heavy, precise rock music in Simulacrum, and will play with the trio in Chicago
Back in the late 80s, John Zorn famously crammed many of his disparate musical interests into the work of a single ensemble. His quintet Naked City embodied his rapid-cut aesthetic; every couple of bars the ensemble abruptly and precisely switched tone and style, communicating a short-attention-span ethos that foreshadowed the age of information overload. In […]
Posted inBlogs
Philadelphia pianist Brian Marsella brings a kaleidoscopic touch to the music of John Zorn
Pianist Brian Marsella and his nimble trio channel a variety of voices on pieces from Zorn’s Book of Angels.
Posted inBlogs
Eugene Chadbourne’s paradigm-smashing There’ll Be No Tears Tonight is back in print
Corbett vs. Dempsey’s record label reissues Eugene Chadbourne’s mind-warping 1980 collision of free improv, country music, and bebop.
Posted inBlogs
An all-star jazz trio tackles the music of John Zorn
Craig Taborn, Christian McBride, and Tyshawn Sorey find common purpose interpreting compositions from John Zorn’s library of Masada material.
Posted inBlogs
Remembering God Is My Co-Pilot: ‘We’re here / We’re queer / We’re gonna fuck your children!’
Given all the 90s nostalgia going around, playfully avant-garde NYC queercore band God Is My Co-Pilot definitely deserve their share.
Posted inBlogs
Monday’s MusicNow concert salutes John Zorn and Evanston native Myra Melford
The program features compositions by the two jazz-bred composers, with the latter performing on her works.
Posted inBlogs
Reader’s Agenda Sat 5/3: Global Cannabis March, Kids and Kites Festival, and Bladerunner
What’s on the Reader‘s Agenda for Saturday, May 3
Posted inMusic
In Rotation: Rebecca Valeriano-Flores of Negative Scanner on time traveling with the Fall
Current musical obsessions of Rebecca Valeriano-Flores of Negative Scanner and composer Estlin Usher
Posted inBlogs
Les Rhinocéros brings its proggy, polystylistic hybrids to Township on Monday
Les Rhinocéros from Washington, D.C., brings its disparate musical hybrids to Township on Monday.
Posted inBlogs
The post-high school prog of Les Rhinocéros
Les Rhinoceros, a D.C. prog band who made their first record in high school, play Township on Wednesday
Posted inMusic
Anna Clyne scores big
Symphonies still prefer dead composers, but Anna Clyne beat the odds to land a plum job with the CSO at age 30