John Zorn's best work?

Hi. I've been listening some Zorn's stuff, like this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0xcf-P7FBk

and some of his solo music. I think he's amazing, and I really want to swim in his ocean of sounds.

Post your favorite Zorn work! Or any other artist in the same vein. Thx.

bigfan. all good.

right now my favorites:

The Dreamers,

The Gift,

O'o,

Lucifer: Book of Angels 10

Godard/Spillane is definitely the one you need to hear.

John Zorn recently released an incredible recording of improvised organ music. I couldn't find any clips on youtube, but here's a cool recording of different concert.

Zorn was my gateway into a lot of avant garde music when I was in high school and much of it is very dear to my heart. It's hard to pin down his "best" work just because there's so much of it and his output is so eclectic. I think, today, what I find most appealing about him is his obsessive interest in and understanding of both high and low genres of music. I can't think of another musician who has managed to dabble in so many disparate styles with such consistent success (not to say that he hasn't put out some stinkers). Here are a few of my favorites:

Spillane is awesome and I it's considered one of his most seminal albums

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUq7ufTgFg4&feature=related

Spy Vs. Spy is an album of punk/thrash reimaginings of Ornette Coleman tunes. I probably come back to this one most frequently.

There's his improv game, Cobra, that's worth checking out.

Also of interest, if you're into Zorn's more improv/art music/noise stuff, is Christian Marclay, who was a frequent collaborator of his in the 80s.

I hope this is of help to you!

^^^^

good post!!

My favourites:

Electric Masada

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3XletQhOaA

Naked City - Radio

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmgi3KFZwlU

I.A.O.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtpFQYSA0M0

Filmworks (ALL of it!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGqCO635pDI

Couldn't find any of The Circlemaker on youtube, but give that one a go too; really nice two-disc chamber version of some of his Masada material.

I do think his best music is this stuff, even if Spillane was the most life changing

Still, can't forget

i recommand Moonchild series! & Music Romance series! ;-) also the rare album named Hemophiliac by Hemophiliac (band with JZ)

My Zorn folder has 12,3GB of mp3s in it and it doesnt even include Painkiller, Naked City nor the Masada projects. This guy has released a fuckload of stuff

John Zorn's best work comes in the form of the two excellent Tetsu Inoue albums he put out on his record label/imprint

Pain Killer's also pretty cool if you like both free jazz and grindcore, even features a member of Napalm Death. He has a lot of varied and cool work, I wouldn't stress trying to label something his best.

'The Big Gundown' John Zorn plays the music of Ennio Morricone. This is the album that in a lot of ways put Zorn on the map. Amazing stuff.

[youtubehd]hc0PI2ohJtQ[/youtubehd]

For pure Zorn, I like his string quartets, (The String Quartets), which can be rather silly and horrifying at the same time.

I second 'Spillane' and 'Spy Vs. Spy'.

Xu Feng, one of his game pieces, is pretty cool:

[youtubehd]E9pVHIhCxnE[/youtubehd]

I really like the limited-release 'Hemophiliac' album that he did as a trio w/ Mike Patton and Ikue Mori.

Ohhh... what else. The I.A.O. is very cool if you want to relax. The entire Masada songbook is great as well.

Edit: Oh, and it should go without saying, but you absolutely have to listen to Naked City. No question.

I.A.O. is a good release but it is definitely not relaxing to me.

I had to pare down my Zorn collection a few years ago, and to be honest a lot of it didn't feel indispensable. I still love a lot of it, but I feel like he can get into a bit of an incestuous circle with repeat collaborators and spin his wheels.

Electric Masada was really fun. I think I like the way the 50th Birthday Celebration Vol 4. EM album is recorded more than the At the Mountains of Madness album, but the latter is a little more comprehensive and aggressive.

Also, I know I'm a Trey Spruance/SC3 fanboy, and that it's probably really annoying to the rest of watmm, but Xaphan: Book of Angels is imo probably the best Masada Book 2 release

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anR7Uq9BI50

And Naked City: Absinthe is pretty great.

  On 10/23/2012 at 11:54 PM, baph said:

Also, I know I'm a Trey Spruance/SC3 fanboy, and that it's probably really annoying to the rest of watmm, but Xaphan: Book of Angels is imo probably the best Masada Book 2 release

No shame in that. I'm right there with you. Xaphan is probably one of my favorite interpretations of the Masada songbook. In fact I prefer Trey's palette of Zorn's in most cases.

This is all rather timely for me, since I'm in the middle of my quarter-annual Secret Chiefs 3 bender.