Jazz breaking news: Zorn’s 60th birthday songs at Barbican
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
John Zorn, the New York-based avant garde saxophonist and improviser is celebrating his 60th birthday at the Barbican on 12 July.
As expected from an artist whose panoramic influences span medieval warrior-monks, Japanese cartoons and Ennio Morricone, the programme is inspiringly eclectic.
Vocal sounds, if not necessarily singing, have been an essential feature of Zorn’s soundscape throughout his career. To celebrate this relationship he has invited some of his favourite lyricists, the versatile Mike Patton, of Faith No More and Mr Bungle, Grammy Award-winning songwriter Jesse Harris, and singer-songwriter Sean Lennon, son of John and Yoko, to create new lyrical collaborations for selected tunes in his catalogue.
Alongside these new sounds, there will be existing work including Illuminations, a piano trio evoking the poetry of French visionary Arthur Rimbaud; Holy Visions, an accapella piece for five female voices about the life and work of 12th-century visionary Hildegard of Bingen; Moonchild: Templars - in Sacred Blood, with Mike Patton on vocals and John Medeski on organ, part of a longer celebration of the Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon; and a performance by Electric Masada, creating group improvisation based on Hebrew songs.
– Matthew Wright
Zorn@60 takes place in the Barbican Hall on 12 July at 7.30pm – for more info go to www.barbican.org.uk