Masada II

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.

Beginning in the early ’90s, Zorn’s Masada quartet exploded perceptions of jazz by applying then-familiar idiomatic forms—particularly those established by Ornette Coleman in the early  ‘60s—to the scale and melodies of Klezmer music. “The music is surging and battle-ready,” Ben Ratliff wrote in The New York Times in 1999, five years into the original quartet’s existence, “which translates to a positive statement about the strength of Jewish culture.” The original Masada unit included Zorn on saxophone, Greg Cohen on bass, Dave Douglas on trumpet, and Joey Baron on drums, their shared chemistry translating into a seemingly inborn sense of harmony between the horns and a rhythmic connection that felt as intuitive but dynamic as a person’s pulse. Masada recorded 10 albums for Japanese label DIW before releasing a revelatory series of recordings on Tzadik, Zorn’s own label, that provided an exacting testimonial to how much they could swing, howl, and drive live. Zorn’s classic Masada quartet reassembles for two performances at Big Ears, beginning and ending his two-day stand at the Bijou.

Ensemble:

John Zorn

Dave Douglas

Greg Cohen

Joey Baron