John Zorn, the expansive universe of a jazz genius | Culture

He is about to turn 71, although no one would say otherwise. Whether he is introducing the musicians who bring his compositions to life on stage or when he is blowing his alto sax in a flamboyant and exuberant manner, John Zorn seems like a guy who never left his fifties and who is still as active and lively as he was decades ago. Perhaps it is because of his unbridled activity: he composes and publishes music inordinately, and his catalogue, which contains hundreds of recordings, grows by dozens every year. He has no children, nor does he go on vacation; he just works and works, composes, conducts, creates and builds projects, regularly renewing his title as the most prolific living American composer.

Despite this professional hyperactivity, it is not so easy to hear him live in Europe, let alone in Spain. Zorn is an exclusive and demanding artist who does not just let himself be hired; with him everything is a measured project and a special proposal designed for each moment and each place, as he wishes. At the Donostiako Jazzaldia they know this well: all of Zorn’s visits in more than a decade have been within the framework of this jazz festival, the longest-running and most prestigious in the region.

To its monumental Masada Marathon of 2013 (which hosted 12 concerts with different formations), a visit by the saxophonist in a trio with Bill Laswell and Dave Lombardo in 2015, and another mammoth marathon with his Bagatelles In 2019 (14 concerts in two days, also with different formations), the composer’s residency at the 59th edition of the San Sebastian festival has been added, with six concerts spread over three days, in which several of the most important groups with which he has been working in recent times have performed.

These concerts have been the most memorable musical display that the Jazzaldia has ever had, which, aside from these concerts, has also hosted a wide, varied and high-quality programme; but with Zorn we are talking about one of the peaks of universal creative music, and it is natural that his proposals stand out in almost any jazz programme, however excellent it may be. Because, despite this creative unrestraint, the most fascinating thing about the American composer is that no matter how much he produces, the quality of his work rarely falls below levels that are within the reach of very few creators.

An expanding universe

In both his albums and concerts, Zorn’s music is supported by his pen and leadership as much as by the musicians he chooses for each specific project. One of the constants in his work is that he is always surrounded by a group of trusted musicians who respond to his particular desires. They are all part of that expanding Zorn universe that, while being a faithful reflection of the creator and his idiosyncratic personality, is also an extraordinary example of the talent of a handful of performers who are always among the most brilliant and select in the world. Zorn does not mince words: his music is not for anyone to perform, but for whomever he requires at any given moment.

This quarry has been evolving in recent years, and in the six concerts that have been presented in Donostia-San Sebastián we have been able to listen to several of the most brilliant names of the most recent Zorn’s main stable, such as the prodigious pianist Brian Marsella, the young guitar superstar Julian Lage, the veteran organist John Medeski, the drummer Ches Smith, the guitarist Matt Hollenberg or the drummer Kenny Grohowski, among others. Together and mixed in different formations, they embody bands such as Uncertain, Mock drill either Chaos Magickprojects that are producing much of Zorn’s most important music in recent years.

Despite some overlaps in members, each of these formations, carefully assembled by Zorn, is inseparable from the music it performs. You cannot swap one guitarist for another, or have Marseille play an acoustic piano instead of a Fender Rhodes keyboard where it doesn’t belong. In some ways, it is as if composition and performance were one in Zorn’s music, making it essential that both be united at all times so that the complete experience is as the author demands. It is, in a bold and anachronistic but illustrative comparison, as if Beethoven went on tour together with Emil Gilels, Chopin with Vladimir Horowitz or Mozart with Walter Gieseking, so that their piano works would not sound in one interpretation or another, but in the particular version of the pianist chosen by the composer on each occasion. Zorn assembles the pieces and draws the parameters but, once his musicians begin to play, his creations take flight in their voices.

At the same time, trying to separate Zorn as a performer from his composer or director is unfeasible. Although his presence as a saxophonist has been diminishing in recent times and has been limited to very specific projects, his musical universe cannot be understood without all his creative facets. Furthermore, listening to Zorn as an instrumentalist continues to be the most direct and resounding way of connecting with the most primal part of his personality, and offers the opportunity to access not only his ideas, his overwhelming compositional ability and his ironclad artistic direction, but also the carnal and most synthetic expression of his language.

A vibrant concert

For this reason, the concert that closed the Donostiako Jazzaldia was, without a doubt, the most eagerly awaited of his residency, as it was the only one in which the saxophonist stepped onto the stage to play the alto saxophone, leading one of his main current groups: Masada New Quartet. In it, Zorn reviews the music he produced with one of his most popular groups, Masada, in which he combined the tradition of Jewish music with the free jazz from the classic quartet of Ornette Coleman with Don Cherry. Thirty years after the first recordings of the original group, Zorn finally presented this new incarnation of Masada in our country, in a vibrant concert that left the audience breathless from start to finish. Accompanied by the guitar of Lage, the Peruvian double bassist Jorge Roeder and the veteran drummer Kenny Wollesen, Zorn demonstrated that his ability as a saxophonist remains at the highest level. And, above all, that he is still capable of going on stage and having a great time like a child, creating extraordinary music at the same time. Perhaps that is the secret of his youthful appearance.

It is difficult to know when Zorn will next visit Spain, but for now, this fourth visit to the Donostia-San Sebastián Jazz Festival has added a brilliant and innovative new chapter to the history of improvised music in Spain.