Cowell, Garland, Zorn on the Web

I imagine you've heard the first Naked City record, since that's probably his most well-known work, but it still blows me away 15 years later. Seeing that band perform live was incredible.

I like his Masada output but it's nothing I would go out of my way to press on people (as I would Naked City).

Hey Kyle,

It was nice to run into you yesterday... I mean give you a pound of shrimp. Good to hear that all is well.

Thanks for pointing me to Hadju's article on John Zorn. I have come into contact with Zorn a few times. So far, he has hit on my girlfriend, told the audience to cheer more (he made a surprise appearance), and yelled at me and some fellow cigarette smokers "to get off the fucking sidewalk" and get back to our designated smoking area in front of Webster Hall. Which brings me to my next point: Hadju should have made it clearer that the problem with John Zorn is that he is a royal asshole. His music is just icing on that cake.

Best,
zeke

I'm not a Zorn fan, but Hadju's piece struck me as so "off" that I feel inpsired to give Zorn another chance.

Hadju's offhand diss of Satie -- hey, Satie's great! Satie's acolytes did work better than his own? Who? Unless you count Debussy as an acolyte (and I wouldn't), I don't see it, much as I enjoy a lot of music by Les Six. "Socrate" is a unique marvel -- which has influenced you, too, Kyle! And though I do love your recent choral setting of the Cummings poem, I wouldn't say your piece exceed Satie! (Stands next to it admirably, sure; and it's not sheer imitation either.)

Hadju's dismissal of the Game pieces as a "debasement" of "the creative process" is deeply anti-intellectual and would by corollary have to include Cage's aleatory music and the whole Conceptual Art movement. How is a "game" a debasement? Zorn is precisely playing the "game" of western art-history's premium on innovation. I agree that "innovation" is not the most important role of art -- which is why I like that Zorn called them games! -- but innovation is itself a mode of "the creative process" -- one that is highly regarded by the culture at large, popular as well as academic.

And, finally, Jewish people get to claim Bacharach's music as Jewish music not only because Bacharach is Jewish, but also because the Tin Pan Alley tradition of which Bacharach is one of the last avatars was largely dominated by Jews and had roots in Jewish vaudeville and klezmer. You can hear the klezmer roots clinging to a number of Irving Berlin and George Gershwin compositions (including "Rhapsody in Blue"), and while I've never noted echoes of klezmer strains in Bacharach's tunes, it would not surprise me to find out they are there.

I really liked Hadju's Billy Strayhorn bio and was eager to read his take on Zorn, but this missed a lot.

KG replies: I think the line that won me over was "cavalier about the results."

I'll always treasure John Zorn for the influence he had on Mr. Bungle's first album. Best. Album. Ever

I've seen Naked City live three times, and Masada twice, and have enjoyed all those performances, but there's no questions that I enjoyed the Naked City performances in part *because* they aestheticized a kind of hipster antisocialism that's endemic on the downtown scene. It helped that I was 29 at the time. As far as Masada goes, I don't get tired of that sort of modal jazz, esp. when played by such excellent musicians, but nobody's saying their work is epochal.

Zorn is anything but cavalier about the results of his work, especially the game pieces. Anyone who has learned any of them from him will tell you that he cares very much about the results. NB: I'm not speaking from personal experience (I wish!) but several friends who've played with him have made this point.

Zorn and Hadju obviously disagree fundamentally on the nature of music and the composer's role in it. That's OK, it happens all the time -- I (mostly) don't get La Monte Young, for example. The part I don't understand is where Hadju's hostile tone comes from.

KG replies: Well... one's opinions derive from one's experiences. The Downtown improviser I knew best once told me he played a terrible gig with Zorn, that completely flopped. Afterward he was down, and Zorn asked him what was wrong. "We played terribly out there." "So what?," he said Zorn replied. "It's only improvisation."