Tuesday, August 29, 2023

The Bleeding Edge: 8/30–9/3/2023

Poster of the schedule for JOHN ZORN at 70 (which can be enlarged after downloading)

The format for this week’s headline is slightly different. That is because there is only one Bleeding Edge event, but that event will begin tomorrow, August 30, and continue through Sunday, September 3. The event itself will be a five-day birthday celebration for John Zorn, who was born on September 2, 1953. The title of the entire event will be, as expected, JOHN ZORN at 70.

The opening sentence of Zorn’s Wikipedia page describes him as “an American composer, conductor, saxophonist, arranger and producer who ‘deliberately resists category.’” Indeed, that resistance is so strong that, back in the days of the Schwann catalog, his entries were divided between the Classical and Jazz categories. While Zorn was both a composer and soloist, many of his approaches to composing experimental music were shared with a generous number of improvising artists. Those artists include (but are far from limited to) Laurie Anderson, Bill Frisell, Julian Lage, Fred Frith, Mike Patton, John Medeski, Dave Lombardo, Trevor Dunn, Petra Haden, Trey Spruance, Kenny Wollesen, Brian Marsella, Gyan Riley, Cyro Baptista, Chris Otto, Sae Hashimoto, Steve Gosling, Jorge Roeder, WIlliam Winant, Ikue Mori, and Ches Smith.

Over the course of those five days, there will be fourteen performances, thirteen of which will be hosted by the Great American Music Hall. The remaining program is entitled The Hermetic Organ, and it will be a solo performance by Zorn on the organ of Grace Cathedral. Furthermore, the very first sets tomorrow evening will feature two world premiere performances. Tickets for all events are being sold by the Great American Music Hall; but, unfortunately, there is no single home page for the entire program. Instead, hyperlinks for the individual events (including the organ recital) have all been assigned to the Calendar Web page. The hyperlink for each event leads to a Web page that provides both program specifics and information about purchasing tickets. Tickets include options for all-day passes and full-series passes.

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