John Zorn: "Honesty, Imagination, Craft, Catharsis"

    If anything, John Zorn is 100% honest. He holds no opinion, or anything for that matter, back. In his own words, paraphrased, “Once I’m dead, people can do whatever they want [with my compositions], while I’m here, do it my way. If you don’t want to: fuck you.”

    He started as most composers do, writing classical music, but changed course after listening to and experiencing improv musicians and artists like Cecil Taylor and Sun Ra. This, paired with Zorn picking up the saxophone, put him on his path to the composer he is today. His self described “atonal, thorny, spiky” music is not for everyone, I must admit, I am not a huge fan myself. I went to NEC for my undergrad, not in the contemporary improv department Zorn mentioned, but in the closely related jazz department, and attended several of the Cobra Ensemble’s (an ensemble completely dedicated to Zorn’s piece Cobra) performances, and while they were honestly interesting, the genre is just not for me. So I have to admit that I didn’t think this week’s talk would be for me either. That being said, I really appreciated and couldn’t agree more with Zorn’s main points.

    He placed high importance on forming a sense of community with musicians. I identified with this notion intensely. Having gone through the often cold, jaded, and emotionally devoid conservatory mindset, I can say that, for me, working with friends and selecting musicians with personal relationships in mind is amazingly effective and emotionally rewarding and in agreement with Zorn “that’s how you get great music.”

    Zorn seems to have a passion for literally everything. He is obviously highly imaginative and expressive, at times excessively so. In my opinion, these are markers of a specific type of creative, a unique type of savant bursting at the seams with art and ideas. He made a lot of bold statements; “I don’t play the saxophone, I play the room”, Horace Silver was “the worst”, “The ACO [American Composers Orchestra, I assume] is a nightmare, its’ a fuckin’ joke”, and many others I was too busy giggling at to write down. Though he certainly knows how to express himself, one of the things I really appreciated was his acknowledgment of the unnecessary. After writing a piece, he asks, “does the world need this?” If not, he lets it go. This quality of setting aside ego and honestly assessing your own work is paramount and, in my opinion, extremely admirable.

    Craft and excellence are objectives Zorn has pursued his whole music career, in himself and in his musicians. He demands high merit, character, and feelings from the artists he works with. I believe him when he says he makes significant attempt to get to know the musicians he selects, another admirable and very important quality, so he can draw upon their strengths and they can elevate the music together. I think he goes about this in a very healthy, empathetic, and human way. “Musicians need support, not criticism” he says, quoting Richard Stein I believe, and once again, I couldn’t agree more.

    “Musicians are born victims.” he explains, they will always do what they love, no matter the cost. Another bold statement maybe not the healthiest way to look at it and a possible over-generalization? Do I think that by being a musician I’m a victim? My initial, gut reaction is to say, very much in the spirit of John Zorn, fuck no! But I do understand his point, and in delving deeper into his words, past the initial shock and audacity many of them carried, I realize that I agree with him. This was my process with most of what Zorn said (let’s be real, the guy obviously loves to talk, something we have in common. After processing his talk, to my admitted surprise, he became one of my favorite guests, winning me over with his unadulterated opinions based in authentic musicianship and genuine humanity.