John Zorn

H.R. of Bad Brains is Not Crazy, Insists Jamie Saft

With a monstrously flowing godlike beard, multi-instrumental guru Jamie Saft resembles a Hasidic mountain man who should be jamming on meaty blues licks with his beloved ZZ Top instead of the downtown avant-gardist and John Zorn ensemble vet for which he's known. The catch is, dude actually makes hi ... More >>

Punk-Jazz Scientists Many Arms Tell Us Their Guitar Shredding Secrets

The members in Illadelphia/Astoria punk-jazz trio Many Arms are quite the busy dudes. Ace guitatorrist Nick Millevoi counts two intrepid solo records under his belt, bassist Johnny DiBlase leads his own skronk-heavy Quartet and provides the low end for jazzmongers Zevious while drummer extraordinair ... More >>

VOX Festival

The Best Jazz Shows in New York City This Week 10/29

Here's a list of jazz shows happening in the city we think you'll enjoy.

Live: The Joshua Light Show With John Zorn, Lou Reed, Bill Laswell, Milford Graves, And Terry & Gyan Riley

The Joshua Light Show with John Zorn/Lou Reed/Bill Laswell/Milford Graves and Terry Riley/Gyan Riley Skirball Center for the Performing Arts Friday, September 14 Better than: Slippin' into darkness. "Just to watch people in weird shirts playing funny-shaped instruments is not visually on the same ... More >>

Q&A: Tim Berne On Big Satan, Playing with Nels Cline, How The Internet Fucked Up The Music Business, And Not Being Part of The "Downtown Jazz Scene"

Saxophone giant Tim Berne is one forward-thinking renegade who started altering the landscape of jazz in the mid-1970s by wielding his horn and, in a show of then-unheard of DIY vision, launched his own record label. A late bloomer, Berne didn't pick up a sax until his very late teens but upon his ... More >>

Q&A: Marc Ribot On His Headlining Run At The Village Vanguard, Heading Into Unfamiliar Scenes, And Coming To New York In The '70s

While working in organist Jack McDuff's band in 1979, guitarist Marc Ribot learned not to "hit the obvious note," a guideline he's followed ever since. As a sideman, he's strummed for the likes of Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, the Lounge Lizards, and John Zorn; on his own, he moves from solo guitar to ... More >>

Live: Thurston Moore And John Zorn Offer A Brief, Noisy Sermon At St. Mark's Church

Thurston Moore/John Zorn Duo St. Mark's Church Friday, May 4 Better than: Bumming about MCA alone. Free improvisation always has religious overtones—the major free-jazzers of the '60s acknowledged this with album titles like Ascension and Spiritual Unity—so there is hardly a better spa ... More >>

Davey Williams, LaDonna Smith, & Andrea Centazzo

Many Arms

ONE STEP BEYOND

A guitar tribute to the late Derek Bailey

Jenny Scheinman's Mischief and Mayhem

John Zorn & the Aleph Trio

Four Excellent New Christmas Songs That Are Guaranteed To Be Drummer Boy Challenge-Safe

This week in the Voice I discussed The Little Drummer Boy Challenge, a sort of Frogger pitting your ears against "Christmas creep." The rules are simple: If you haven't heard "The Little Drummer Boy" in any form—including Justin Bieber's recent, Busta Rhymes-assisted update of the song—s ... More >>

O SUPERJAM

Roulette reopens with a bang

'John Zorn Improv Night'

Jazz Consumer Guide: Mocking Traditions, or Joining Them

Plus suave elegance, raw non-beauty, and other works-in-progress

Your Summer Live-Jazz Cheat Sheet

Options abound for fans of all inclinations and bank accounts

Wylie Dufresne and John Zorn Will Help Russ & Daughters Celebrate the Arrival of New Catch Holland Herring Season

Humble fish, mighty flavor.​Clupeophiles, rejoice! New Catch Holland herring season is nearly upon us, with less than three weeks left until the first shipment arrives at Russ & Daughters on June 8. Last year, the appetizing mecca celebrated with a herring and aquavit pairing at the Roger Smit ... More >>

DOUBLE BUBBLE

Kayo Dot touch another world

Tim Sparks

Rova Sax Quartet

BEING JOHN ZORN

Last day of a whirlwind jazz project

Mick Barr

Kayo Dot

Cyro Baptisto & Beat the Donkey

Evan Parker & John Zorn

The Musicka Mystica Maxima Festival, Featuring Genesis P-Orridge, Dan Higgs, and Magick, Is Coming to Santos

​Nice. First comes news of the sublimely art-damaged WFMU Fest, and now another weirdo fest is coming to NYC--The Musicka Mystica Maxima Festival, "Two nights of Musick made by practicing magicians or practicing musicians who's work celebrates the Magical lifestyle, as well as public performan ... More >>

The Top 10 Records Sold Last Week at Downtown Music Gallery in Chinatown

In 2009, the traditional practice of exchanging physical copies of records for money is a trade that might best be called quixotic. But New Yorkers are stubborn people, and the record store is not dead. Below, the top ten records that sold in the last week at a store near you. Scott FriedlanderMich ... More >>

In Praise of Marc Ribot...

...style-morphing guitarist icon extraordinaire

Interview: Director Richard Foreman on John Zorn and Their New Play Astronome

Paula CourtMaybe Stockhausen next? Foreman and Zorn's "Astronome" It's not exactly Tosca, but Astronome--a collaboration between MacArthur-genius director Richard Foreman and MacArthur-genius composer John Zorn--is an opera of sorts. In the piece, currently playing at the Ontological-Hysteric Theat ... More >>

John Zorn Scores Richard Foreman's Astronome

Interview: Director Richard Foreman on John Zorn and Their New Play Astronome

HOW GENIUS

Richard Foreman and John Zorn team up

New Year's Eve 2009, Continued

IN WITH THE NEW

Two downtown musicians open a downtown club

Live: Lou Reed at the Highline Ballroom's First Birthday Party

Dead Again

Tonic's demise triggers the 15,000th or so 'New York City club life is dying' frenzy

The Italian Maestro Outlasts Giallo Celluloid, Triumphs Over El Presidente

Prop Comedy

Japanese noisemaker leads night of skronk and sword fights

Covering Expenses

A who, what, why, where, when—and how many—of the uncharted world of independent jazz labels

Meet the Beetles

An invitation to a sweet holiday in other species' mystery

Overcoming Irony, John Zorn Goes For the Heart, Not For the Easy Kill

Well Strung: Carter's Musical Present Tied Up With a Bow

Music

Time Bandits

Jazz and Then Some

A Bulgar Display