American saxophonist and composer, born 2 September 1953 in New York City, USA. He owns the record label and has worked with a large number of experimental musicians, particularly in improvised music, modern classical music and jazz, though he has produced music in most styles. As a child, he played piano, guitar and flute. He went to college in St. Louis where he discovered free jazz, before dropping out and moving to Manhattan. There he gave concerts in his small apartment, playing a variety of reeds, duck calls, tapes, etc; almost anything. In the mid 1980s he signed to the label. Since then, he has released a very large number of records, usually putting out several each year. Zorn's recorded output includes records by two bands of his own, Masada (a klezmer band playing music that is often described as Jewish jazz) and Naked City (an often aggressive mix of jazz, rock and grindcore). He has also worked with musicians like , , , , and . He has written music for television and film, which has been collected in the ongoing series of records on his label. Some of these are jazz-based, others are classical. He has also written several "game pieces
Name Vars
- J. Zorn
- J.Zorn
- JZ
- John Z
- John Z.
- John Zone
- Jon Zorn
- Zone
- Zorn
- Джон Зорн
Aliases
- Dekoboko Hajime
- Rav Tzizit
- The Composer