Great American Music Hall hosts birthday residency for avant-garde giant John Zorn
SAN FRANCISCO -- The Great American Music Hall in San Francisco this week announced it would be hosting a 70th birthday residency with legendary NYC saxophonist and composer John Zorn starting in late August.
The concerts scheduled for August 30 through September 3 marks the first time the music iconoclast has participated in an extended run of performances in San Francisco since he participated in a similar series of shows for his 65th birthday at the Chapel in 2018.
An important avant-garde composer and saxophonist who first broke out in the mid-1970s in New York, Zorn has been the object of both ecstatic praise and furious outrage, much like his forebears Igor Stravinsky and Ornette Coleman. Taking an omnivorous approach to music that draws on everything from classical, free jazz, and film soundtracks to lounge exotica, experimental noise and hardcore punk, the native New Yorker embraces a radical aesthetic that makes listener indifference nearly impossible.
"ZORN at 70" will offer up a series of 15 performances curated by the composer over the course of five days at the Great American that will also include a solo organ performance by Zorn at Grace Cathedral. The concerts will include world premieres of new groups and music -- including the debuts of Awaking Ground, a trio with the saxophonist, organist John Medeski and volcanic drummer Dave Lombardo, and Love Songs featuring vocalist Petra Haden fronting a sextet -- as well as appearances by Zorn with fellow avant-gardist Laurie Anderson and guitar player Bill Frisell (who recently had his own GAMH residency) and with the latest line-ups of his acoustic quartet Masada and his New Electric Masada group closing out the residency.
Other highlights include an afternoon performance of his game piece COBRA featuring an all-star cast of 13 improvisors including Mr. Bungle members Mike Patton, Trevor Dunn, experimental guitarist and composer Fred Frith, and a murders row of drummers including Lombardo, Kenny Wollesen, Ches Smith and Kenny Grohowski and several groups performing music for string ensembles including a guitar trio with Frisell, Julian Lage and Gyan Riley.
Full details on the expansive schedule of performances and special ticket packages for single days or the entire residency are available on the Great American Music Hall website. Tickets go on sale Friday, June 16, at 10 a.m.
