Impromptus, Ballades, Nocturnes

In the last 50 years, very few artists have been as boundless as John Zorn, from his ideas to his energy to his organization. After first emerging in the experimental Wild West of New York’s downtown scene in the ’70s, the span and scale of Zorn’s work have only seemed to increase over the intervening decades. From his breakthrough reinterpretations of Ennio Morricone and ground-breaking musical “games” like Cobra to his splenetic art-grindcore with Naked City, from his jazz-reorienting in Masada to his compositional gauntlets like Moonchild and Incerto, Zorn has packed several lifetimes of music-making into 72 years. He seems to have only grown more active and tireless of late. Zorn has also been a crucial catalyst for the development of experimental music, whether establishing his great Tzadik label or his New York space The Stone, or convening brilliant bands that otherwise might not have come into existence. After making his Big Ears debut in 2022 and celebrating his 70th birthday here in 2023, Zorn returns to Big Ears with a staggering cast of collaborators for two days at the Bijou Theatre.

During the last five years, Zorn has deployed a piano trio of his closest and most steady collaborators—bassist Jorge Roeder, pianist Brian Marsella, and drummer Ches Smith—to explore several classical forms. This relationship began with the fantastic 2022 album Suite for Piano, but it’s found new spaces since 2024 with a trio of deceptively soft sets—Ballades, Impromptus, and, in August 2025, Nocturnes. Drifting from after-dusk beauty to shape-shifting jazz melancholy, Zorn’s sophisticated sense of harmony and rhythms that never sit quite still radiate in these compositions. Smith has played Zorn’s music for a quarter-century now, while Roeder has been a vital piece of his work (including the New Masada Quartet) for seven years. Marsella even teaches Masada and Cobra at The New School. They’re the perfect ensemble for these most sensitive works.

Ensemble

Brian Marsella

Jorge Roeder

Ches Smith