Love Songs ft. Petra Haden

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.

In Love Songs, Zorn pays tribute to New York institutions of another era—the deceptively complex pop songs of the Brill Building and Tin Pan Alley and the theatrical wonder of Stephen Sondheim. Zorn linked once again with Jesse Harris, the lyricist and guitarist whose résumé spans from Norah Jones to Lana Del Rey and beyond. Harris and Zorn built a song cycle about the aspirations, heartaches, and emotional valences of a young woman in love, rendered by the equally charged and charming voice of Petra Haden, for whom they had already penned 2020’s Songs for Petra. Performed by pianist Brian Marsella, bassist Jorge Roeder, and drummer Ches Smith, these 16 songs tangle sentimentality with twisting rhythmic passages (“Keep on Looking” and “And I Will Dream of You”) or drift off into perfect romantic oblivion, as on “Lost in a Reverie.” Zorn is perhaps overly known for a confrontational edge, how his music can hit both the head and the body; here, he aims squarely for the heart.

Ensemble:

Petra Haden

Brian Marsella

Jorge Roeder

Ches Smith