Line #77 Music/JohnZorn


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/debd0023082192a0eff1208e1bcbfa11.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: Zorn and a brief summarization of all the genres he mixes in his music.]]
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4	John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is one of the most eclectic American composers and musicians alive today. He is a multi-instrumentalist, often classified as a {{Jazz}} or AvantGardeMusic artist, but his music is far more diverse. The man is the best musical example of GenreRoulette. There are few Western musical forms he hasn't had a go at: {{Jazz}}, AvantGardeMusic, ClassicalMusic, {{Rock}}, PunkRock, SurfRock, Exotica, ElectronicMusic, {{Ambient}}, Klezmer, {{Improv}}, {{Hardcore}}, {{Grindcore}}, DeathMetal, Thrashcore, {{Reggae}}, noise, NoiseRock, {{Blues}}, movie soundtracks... Not only that, but he mixes all of them together and switches back and forth between them, much like somebody surfing TV channels. He had said on many occasions that composer Mauricio Kagel was his first musical hero, who sparked his interest in experimental music. Another big influence is Carl Stalling, best known as the composer of the original WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes cartoons.
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6	Zorn is JustForFun/OneOfUs in the sense that he started composing at an early age and build up a staggering album collection of hundreds of artists, whose influence he drenched into his own work and he frequently pays tribute too. He maintains independence from the mainstream music by working on his own independent label Tzadik. This allows him to both bring out solo records as well as producing and working with many different bands, such as:
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8	* The {{Hardcore}} and {{Grindcore}} groups Naked City, Hemophiliac and Painkiller;
9	* The free {{Jazz}} and klezmer collectives Masada and Bar Kohkba;
10	* The Dreamers, a blend of jazz and exotica, which is among his most accessible work;
11	* His soundtracks, which are compiled under the series ''Filmworks''.
12
13	People who want to dive into Zorn's work may experience ArchivePanic. He has more than 400 recordings attached to his name! And some albums may be too inaccessible for the general public. This makes him a [[CultClassic cult figure]], rather than a household name.
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15	Zorn also appears in the 1992 documentary ''The Revenge of the Dead Indians'', where he and various celebrities (Creator/NoamChomsky, Creator/MattGroening, Iannis Xenakis, Music/FrankZappa, Pierre Boulez, Creator/RutgerHauer, Creator/DennisHopper, Yehudi Menuhin, Benoît Mandelbrot, Music/YokoOno) talk about the influence of Music/JohnCage. He's also the subject of an idiosyncratic documentary, Claudia Heuermann's 2004 film ''A Bookshelf on Top of the Sky: 12 Stories About John Zorn''.
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17	The {{Grindcore}} band Fuck the Facts was named after a track on the debut album of Zorn's Naked City band. Another band that ranks Zorn among its influences is Music/{{Candiria}}. The tracks "Bonehead" and "Hellraiser" from ''Torture Garden'' are used in the opening scene from ''Film/FunnyGames''.
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19	On September 20, 2006, ''Series/TheColbertReport'' mocked Zorn being awarded the Genius Grant. Colbert used a 10-second dissonant excerpt from the 50th Birthday Celebration series and compared it to his blowing into a saxophone, pleading, "Genius Grant please!" Zorn himself took the joke well and felt this ColbertBump was hilarious.
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21	'''Albums with their own page on TV Tropes'''
22	* ''Music/{{Spillane}}'' (1987)
23	* ''Music/{{Radio}}'' (with Naked City) (1993)
24	* ''Music/MusicForChildren'' (1998)
25
26	!! John Zorn's work provides examples of...
27	* AlphabeticalThemeNaming: His albums with the band Masada are titled after the first ten letters of the Hebrew alphabet: ''Alef'', ''Beit'', ''Gimel'', ''Dalet'', ''Hei'', ''Vav'', ''Zayin'', ''Het'', ''Tet'' and ''Yod'' – and contained compositions with Hebrew titles.
28	* AlliterativeTitle: ''Grand Guignol'', ''Duras: Duchamp'', ''Madness, Love and Mysticism'', ''From Silence to Sorcery'', and ''What Thou Wilt''.
29	* {{Ambient}}: One of many genres he touched. ''Absinthe'', with Naked City, features a blend of ambient noise styled compositions. ''Execution Ground'' with Painkiller has a second disc with ambient dub versions of two tracks.
30	* AnimalisticAbomination: ''Chimeras'' references the Myth/ClassicalMythology creatures chimeras.
31	* AsTheGoodBookSays: ''IAO'' is inspired by Kabbalism.
32	* AvantGardeMusic: This is the most correct label you can file him under.
33	* CarefulWithThatAxe: Many of his tracks with Naked City and Painkiller feature a lot of screaming.
34	* ChristmasSongs: ''A Dreamers Christmas'' is a 2011 album by Zorn's band The Dreamers with covers of Christmas carols.
35	* ClassicalMusic: One of many genres he touched. Prime examples are ''Angelus Novus'', ''Kristallnacht'', ''Aporias: Requia for Piano and Orchestra'', ''The String Quartets'', ''Cartoon S/M'', ''Madness, Love and Mysticism'', ''Songs from the Hermetic'', ''Chimeras''...
36	* ConceptAlbum: Zorn has released many albums that are tributes to certain artists, works or historical events. "The Big Gundown" reimagines Music/EnnioMorricone's works, ''Music/{{Spillane}}'' and ''The Bribe'' combines music and spoken word to bring a salute to the novels of Creator/MickeySpillane. ''Spy vs. Spy'' reimagines Music/OrnetteColeman. ''Kristallnacht'' commemorates the 1938 Kristallnacht events in Nazi Germany against Jewish civilians by combining klezmer with DeathMetal.
37	* CoverAlbum and TheCoverChangesTheMeaning: He has reimagined music by artists as diverse as Music/EnnioMorricone, Sonny Clark and Music/OrnetteColeman, often to the point that it is barely recognizable.
38	** ''Grand Guignol'' with Naked City features covers of pieces by Music/ClaudeDebussy, Alexander Scriabin, Orlande de Lassus, Music/CharlesIves and Music/OlivierMessiaen.
39	* CoversAlwaysLie: Despite being pigeonholed as jazz his music really is far more diverse than that. Zorn remembers performing at the Marciac Jazz Festival, where Wynton Marsalis said about him: "That's not jazz." And he answered: "You're right! But this is the only gig I've got, man. Give me another festival and I'll play there.'"
40	* CreepyDoll: The album cover for ''Music/MusicForChildren'' featured a disturbing girl doll with breasts.
41	* {{Crossover}}: He has worked together with Music/MikePatton, Music/BillLaswell, Thurston Moore (Music/SonicYouth), Music/BillFrisell, Music/EugeneChadbourne, Music/MrBungle, Music/DerekBailey, Marc Ribot (of Music/TomWaits fame), and the Japanese rock band Music/{{Boredoms}}. The live album ''The Stone: Issue Three'' (2008) is an improvisation between Zorn, Music/LouReed, and Music/LaurieAnderson.
42	* CultSoundtrack:
43	** The man has written music for documentaries, underground films, TV advertisements, cartoons,... which are all compiled under his ''Filmworks'' series, which has over 25 volumes now.
44	** ''Heretic'' is the soundtrack to an underground porn movie, ''Jeux des Dames Cruelles'', and features photos in the artwork.
45	* DeathMetal: One of the many genres he experiments with, often combined with {{Grindcore}} and {{Thrashcore}}. His ''Spy vs. Spy'' album and his work with Naked City and Painkiller are prime examples.
46	* DistinctDoubleAlbum: ''Lacross'', ''Cartoon S/M'', ''Execution Ground'', the Masada albums... ''Archery'' is a triple album.
47	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''First Recordings 1973'' features all music Zorn made in the dawn of his career, when he was just 20 years old. While occassionally showing sparks of his later audacious experimentations a lot of it is not very impressive yet.
48	* EndangeredSpecies: The Dreamers album, ''0'0'' refers to the Hawaiian songbird family Mohoidae, which was threatened with extinction back then and has now effectively gone extinct.
49	* EnnioMorriconePastiche: ''The Big Gundown'' (1985) reinvents several movie soundtracks for which Music/EnnioMorricone wrote the scores.
50	* EpicRocking: His tracks can be very long. ''Leng Tch'e'' (1992) consists of one 31:37 long, track. Then there is "Redbird" on ''Redbird'' (1995), which is 41:01 minutes long. On ''Music/MusicForChildren'' "Cycles du Nord" takes up 20:54 minutes and is nothing but three wind machines and some feedback playing. ''Mount Analogue'' consists of one title track, which is 38:21 long. ''The Hemetic Organ'', which is completely improvised and live, is 36:25 long. The 31:55 track "Batrachophrenoboocosmomachia" on the Painkiller album ''Talisman: Live in Nagoya''. The longest track in his work so far is the 47:49 "The Dream Membrane" on the album ''The Dream Membrane'' with David Chaim Smith and Bill Laswell.
51	* EverythingIsAnInstrument:
52	** On ''The Book of Heads'', Mark Ribot rubbed balloons on guitar strings until they popped, held talking dolls up to the microphone, pulled guitar strings out of the bridge notch, and hit the strings with pencils and played with rice!
53	** Zorn used water, glass bowls, metal pipes, wax paper, mud and staple guns on ''Songs from the Hermetic Theatre''.
54	** The track "Cycles du Nord" on ''Music/MusicForChildren'' is a 20-minute composition for wind machines.
55	* {{Exotica}}: His 2001 album ''The Gift''.
56	* FaceOnTheCover: Interestingly enough, Zorn doesn't feature his own face on album covers much, if any. A notable exception is ''First Recordings 1973'', a collection of recordings he made when he was 20 years old and in college. He used a childhood photo of himself in front of a desk.
57	* UsefulNotes/{{Feminism}}: His 2009 album ''Femina'' is a tribute to the artistic creativity of women.
58	* FreakyIsCool: A geeky music fan who managed to make a career out of making eclectic music.
59	* GardenOfEvil: The Naked City album ''Torture Garden'' is a shout-out to Octave Mirbeau's eponymous novel.
60	* GenreBusting and GenreRoulette: Zorn fits in all genres.
61	* UsefulNotes/{{Gnosticism}}: He has released several albums with a band called the Gnostic Trio: ''The Gnostic Preludes'', ''The Mysteries'', and ''In Lambeth''.
62	* GratuitousForeignLanguage: ''New Traditions in East Asian Bar Bands'' has narration in Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese. ''Kristallnacht'' and his Masada and Bar Kohkba albums have tracks with Hebrew titles.
63	* GratuitousPanning: On ''Spy vs. Spy'', Zorn is recorded on the right channel, while Tim Berne appears on the left.
64	* {{Grindcore}} and {{Hardcore}}: One of many genres he touched. His bands Naked City, Painkiller, Hemophiliac and Moonchild Trio specialize in it. Mick Harris (Music/NapalmDeath, Scorn) played drums in Painkiller.
65	* HemoErotic: The band Hemophiliac.
66	* {{Homage}}:
67	** Zorn has released several albums that are odes to artists and works he likes: Creator/MickeySpillane, Creator/JeanLucGodard, Music/EnnioMorricone (''The Big Gundown''), Music/OrnetteColeman, Marguerite Duras, Marcel Duchamp, Bruno Schultz, Creator/ArthurRimbaud, ''Film/{{Nosferatu}}'',...
68	** He has also contributed to tribute albums to Music/TheloniousMonk and Music/KurtWeill. On his debut album ''The Classic Guide To Strategy'' the first two tracks are homages to Franchise/LooneyTunes composer Carl Stalling, while the other six are all shout-outs to Japanese avantgarde musicians.
69	** "Two-Lane Highway" on ''Spillane'' is essentially a concerto written for, and featuring, blues guitarist Albert Collins.
70	** ''Elegy'' is dedicated to Creator/JeanGenet.
71	** The track "Notre dame de l'oublie" on ''Absinthe'' is dedicated to Music/OlivierMessiaen.
72	** "Cycles du Nord" on ''Music/MusicForChildren'' is a 20 minute windmachine composition dedicated to Music/EdgardVarese.
73	** ''Redbird'' is a tribute composition for artist Agnes Martin.
74	** "[=BeuysBlock=]" on 2001's ''Songs from the Hermetic Theater'' is a tribute to German artist Joseph Beuys.
75	** The track "Shibboleth" on ''From Silence to Sorcery'' is a tribute to the Jewish poet Paul Celan.
76	** ''Alhambra Love Songs'' features musical tributes to Music/VinceGuaraldi, Creator/ClintEastwood, Creator/DavidLynch, Music/MikePatton and visual artist Harry Everett Smith.
77	** ''Dictée/Liber Novus'' has two compositions: "Dictée", a homage to writer and conceptual artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, and "Liber Novus" was inspired by the "Red Book" of UsefulNotes/CarlJung.
78	** ''Interzone'' and ''Dreamachines'' pay tribute to Creator/WilliamSBurroughs and Creator/BrionGysin. ''Nova Express'' is also inspired by Burroughs' prose.
79	** ''At the Gates of Paradise'' is inspired by Creator/WilliamBlake and the gnostic texts of the Nag Hammadi library. ''A Vision in Blakelight'' is also inspired by Blake.
80	** ''Rimbaud'' is a tribute to Creator/ArthurRimbaud.
81	** The track "À Rebours" on ''Music and Its Double'' is dedicated to composer Gyorgy Ligeti, while "La Machine de l' Être" on the same album is inspired by Antonin Artaud.
82	** The music on ''On the Torment of Saints, the Casting of Spells and the Evocation of Spirits'' was inspired by Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''Theatre/TheTempest''.
83	** "Of Wonder and Certainty" from ''The Dreamers'' is dedicated to Music/LouReed.
84	* IKissYourHand: The cover of ''Madness, Love and Mysticism'' features a woman with a male hand in her mouth.
85	* {{Improv}}: A majority of his work is improvised together with other artists, what lead him to be categorized as {{Jazz}}, more based on the method than the actual music. But Zorn also makes ''game piece'' improvisations, where the improvisations are more controlled according to a set of rules. ''Music/{{Spillane}}'', ''Godard/Spillane'' and ''Xu Feng'' are prime examples of this technique. On ''The Hermetic Organ'', ''The Hermetic Organ, Vol. 2'' and ''The Hermetic Organ, Vol. 3'' Zorn improvised an entire piece on an Aeolian Skinner pipe organ live at St. Paul's Chapel at Columbia University. Music/LouReed, who attended the first performance, called it "a night of culmination and conquest." ''Downtown Lullaby'' is a collective improvisation album.
86	* IndecipherableLyrics: If lyrics are featured at all in Zorn's work they are often in a foreign language or screamed so loud that they are incomprehensible.
87	* IntentionallyAwkwardTitle: A lot of his song titles for Naked City and Painkiller fall in this category. See RefugeInAudacity below.
88	* {{Instrumentals}}: The majority of his work is instrumental.
89	* JackOfAllTrades: Zorn is skilled in alto saxophone, pipe organ, clarinet, flute, keyboards, vocals, guitar, double bass, drums, percussion, theremin, wind machine and (notoriously) duck calls, although his primary instrument, and the one he can wreak most havoc with, is alto sax.
90	* {{Jazz}}: The very narrow genre his music is usually filed under.
91	* JumpScare: His music changes so many styles that you're bound to be scared out of your seat at certain points.
92	* LiveAlbum: Too many to count. Zorn has relased concert albums documenting performances in the USA, Europe, the Middle East and Japan.
93	* LocationSong: The album ''Ganryu Island'' is named after a small Japanese island of the same name, where samurai warriors Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro engaged in battle.
94	* LuckyCharmsTitle: The tracks on the Hemophiliac album ''50th Birthday Celebration Volume 6'' [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50th_Birthday_Celebration_Volume_6 are all symbols.]]
95	* MinimalisticCoverArt: Several album covers are quite simple.
96	** ''Redbird'' is just a reddish color, with the album title and his name on it.
97	** The cover of ''IAO'' is completely white.
98	** ''Alhambra Love Songs'' is also white, but has the title and text on it.
99	** ''Interzone'' is a grey, white album with some weird symbols on it. "Enigmata" is a 2011 white album with an enigma symbol on it.
100	** "Nosferatu'' is completely black, with red lettering.
101	** "The Hermetic Organ'' has a blue cover with a symbol on the cover.
102	** "Rimbaud'' is a blue cover with just the written name Rimbaud on it.
103	** "Music and Its Double'' is a completely white cover, with some abstract imagery on it and the artists' name and title.
104	** "The Concealed'' is a white cover with just a circle, triangle and square on it.
105	* MinisculeRocking: Several tracks on his Naked City albums are less than a minute or even half a minute long.
106	* MoodWhiplash: Not surprisingly, seeing his pet peeve for changing genres so quick and sudden.
107	* NightmareFuel: ''Kristallnacht'' is an album about UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust. As such it's quite disturbing. The second track, "Never Again", consists of twelve minutes of the sound of glass breaking, chopped-up Hitler speeches, footsteps, discordant violins, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking klezmer]], and [[HellIsThatNoise a high-pitched squeal]]. The liner notes warn that the song can cause nausea and headaches.
108	* NightmareFuelStationAttendant: His music is so unpredictable that it can provide a JumpScare here and there or have disturbing, unsettling sounds. Take his band Naked City, for instance. The songs shift from smooth jazz to grindcore to death metal shredding back to jazz and then all over again within the span of seconds. The entirety of it is punctuated with Yamatsuka Eye making the most terrifying noises he possibly can with his mouth.
109	* NoiseRock: Several albums fall into this trope. The most extreme record is ''Weird Little Boy'', an AvantGardeMusic album by Zorn's one-off band Weird Little Boy where the experimental noise is so out there that it divides fans whether it's one of their best or their worst. Trey Spruance, who played on the record, disowned it and advised people not to buy it.
110	* NoTitle: ''Euclid's Nightmare'' has 27 untitled tracks, of which several are intentionally identical - tracks 7 and 18; tracks 3 and 20; and tracks 5, 14, and 27.
111	* NumberOfTheBeast: Zorn signed and numbered 666 copies of the album ''The Satyr's Play/Cerberus'' and produced 66 copies of a limited edition book version which were individualised and hand bound in black goat skin.
112	* ObligatoryBondageSong: A lot of albums with Naked City have covers featuring people in sado-masochistic poses and bondage, including ''Music/{{Radio}}''. The track "S & M Sniper" from ''Torture Garden'' is a song example. "Submission", "My Master, My Slave" and "Dominatrix 5B" from ''Heretic'' too.
113	* OneWordTitle: The albums ''Elegy'', ''Kristallnacht'', ''Redbird'', ''IAO'', ''Chimeras'', ''Magick'', ''Mysterium'', ''Rituals'', 'Femina'', ''Interzone'', ''Enigmata'', ''Nosferatu'', ''Rimbaud'', ''Lemma'', ''Dreamachines''... and that's just the albums in his own catalogue!
114	* {{Opera}}: ''Rituals'' is an opera, first performed at the Bayreuth Opera Festival in 1988. The Moonchild album ''Astronome'' was staged as an opera by Richard Foreman.
115	* PunBasedTitle: ''Lemma'' is a nod to the mathematical equation ''Zorn's lemma'' by namesake Max Zorn. They aren't related, by the way.
116	* PunkRock: One of the genres he touched upon.
117	* RecordProducer: He is producer of a lot of other bands.
118	* RefugeInAudacity: Zorn's music changes styles and moods so abrupt that his work is bound to polarize people. Some of his album covers have also pushed boundaries by showing scenes of violent deaths or creepy sexual images. His song titles can sometimes be audacious too: "Igneous Ejaculation", "Fuck the Facts" (from ''Naked City''), "Perfume of a Critic's Burning Flesh", "Jazz Snob Eat Shit", "Pigfucker" (from ''Torture Garden''), "Sweat, Sperm + Blood", "Coprahagist Rituals" (from ''Heretic''), "Guts of a Virgin", "Handjob" and "Purgatory of Fiery Vulvas" (1991) with Painkiller.
119	* {{Reggae}}: One of the genres he touches upon.
120	* RockMeAsmodeus: ''Asmodeus: Book of Angels Volume 7'' is a literal example.
121	* SatyrPlay: His 2011 album ''The Satyr's Play/Cerberus'' provides music to the tale.
122	* ShoutOut: Where to start?
123	** "You Only Live Twice, Mr. Bond", "Never Say Never Again" and "Thunderball" on ''Locus Solus'' are a reference to the Franchise/JamesBond films ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice'', ''Film/NeverSayNeverAgain'' and ''Film/{{Thunderball}}''. The track "Jedi Mind Trick" on that same album is a reference to ''Franchise/StarWars'', while "White Zombie" references the horror classic ''Film/WhiteZombie''.
124	** "Kagemusha" on ''Ganryu Island'' is a shout-out to Creator/AkiraKurosawa's samurai film ''Film/{{Kagemusha}}''.
125	** ''The Big Gundown'' is a reference to the film ''Film/TheBigGunDown'', for which Music/EnnioMorricone wrote the soundtrack. All the other tracks also reference films for which Morricone composed the music, including ''Film/TheBattleOfAlgiers'', ''Film/DuckYouSucker'', ''Film/OnceUponATimeInTheWest'' and ''Film/OnceUponATimeInAmerica''.
126	** ''Music/{{Spillane}}'', ''The Bribe'', and ''Godard/Spillane'' are a homage to the detective novels by Creator/MickeySpillane.
127	** The 1988 album ''News for Lulu'' and the 1993 follow-up ''More News For Lulu'' are a reference to the character Creator/LouiseBrooks plays in ''Film/PandorasBox''.
128	** ''Spy vs. Spy: The Music Of Ornette Coleman'' brings homage to Music/OrnetteColeman while the title is a shout-out to ''ComicStrip/SpyVsSpy''.
129	** The band Naked City is inspired by a 1945 photograph book by Weegee. The cover of ''Naked City'' is a real photo of a man gunned down, "Corpse with Revolver C.A. 1940", taken by famed photographer Weegee. The album has covers of music by Music/EnnioMorricone, Music/HenryMancini, Music/OrnetteColeman, Music/JohnBarry and Music/JerryGoldsmith. The track "Batman" references ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'', "Reanimator" the film ''Film/{{Reanimator}}'', "Snagglepuss" the Hanna Barbera cartoon character of the same name.
130	** ''Torture Garden'' references ''Le Jardin des Supplices'', a novel by Octave Mirbeau. The track "Hellraiser" is a shout-out to ''Film/{{Hellraiser}}'', while "Shallow Grave" references ''Film/ShallowGrave'' and "Billy Liar" ''Film/BillyLiar''.
131	** ''Grand Guignol'' and ''Heretic'' are dedicated to film director Jack Smith. The former album also justifies its obsession with taboos, fear, terror and evil by making a comparison to the works of Creator/{{Aristotle}}, Creator/{{Aeschylus}}, Creator/WilliamShakespeare, Creator/MarquisDeSade, Creator/FranciscoDeGoya, Creator/EdgarAllanPoe, Creator/SalvadorDali, Georges Bataille, Creator/AlfredHitchcock, Irving Klaw, Francis Bacon, Dan Oniroku, Creator/HerschellGordonLewis, Hermann Nitsch and Music/{{Carcass}}.
132	** The Painkiller album ''Guts of a Virgin'' has a track called "Dr. Phibes", a reference to ''Film/TheAbominableDrPhibes''.
133	** ''Heretic'' has a track called ''Film/TheConquerorWorm''.
134	** ''Leng Tch'e'' is inspired by Georges Bataille's writings about a 1905 photograph of a slow slicing execution method practiced upon a Chinese man.
135	** ''Music/{{Radio}}'' has tracks called ''ComicStrip/KrazyKat'', ''Film/ShockCorridor'' and ''Literature/AmericanPsycho''. The liner notes name various people as inspirations for the music.
136	** ''Absinthe'' has titles which are shout-outs to the works of Creator/PaulVerlaine and Creator/CharlesBaudelaire. The cover is a photograph by Hans Bellmer.
137	** The 1996 collaboration with Music/EugeneChadbourne, ''In Memory of Nikki Arane'', is a reference to a character from ''Film/TheKilling'', who is also featured on the cover.
138	** ''Angelus Novus'' has a track called "For Your Eyes Only", referencing ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly''.
139	** ''Xu Feng'' is named after Taiwanese martial arts actress Xu Feng. She also appears on the cover. The titles of the tracks are all shout-outs to martial arts movies, including ''Film/TheHiddenFortress'' and ''Film/ATouchOfZen''.
140	** ''IAO'' is inspired by Creator/AleisterCrowley and film director Creator/KennethAnger. The title is a shout-out to the Kabbalistic identity of IAO, the initials of Isis, Apophis and Osiris, used as a magical formula in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
141	** The cover of ''Chimeras'' is a detail of the Creator/HieronymusBosch painting "The Last Judgment", a tryptich where only a fragment has survived. The 2010 reissue of this album features Alice Liddell on the cover, the girl who inspired Creator/LewisCarroll to write ''Literature/AliceInWonderland''.
142	** ''Magick'' has a drawing from Creator/GustaveDore on the cover. The individual titles refer to the "Necronomicon", the book from Creator/JosephCampbell's novels.
143	** The debut album by Moonchild, ''Moonchild: Songs Without Words'' takes inspiration from Creator/AleisterCrowley, Antonin Artaud and Music/EdgardVarese. One track is named "UsefulNotes/{{Caligula}}".
144	** ''Nosferatu'' is based on ''Film/{{Nosferatu}}'' and released to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Creator/BramStoker's death in 2012.
145	** The cover of ''On the Torment of Saints, the Casting of Spells and the Evocation of Spirits'' is Creator/SalvadorDali's painting "Art/TheTemptationOfStAnthonyDali".
146	** ''Shir Hashirim'' has a sketch by Creator/AugusteRodin on the cover and is inspired by the Hebrew "Song of Songs".
147	** The Gnostic Trio album ''In Lambeth'' has a title that provides a shout-out to a line from Creator/WilliamBlake's poem "Jerusalem".
148	* SkullForAHead: ''The String Quartets'' features a skull on the album cover.
149	* SomethingBlues: The track "Alhambra Blues" on ''Alhambra Love Songs''.
150	* SpecialGuest:
151	** Naked City features contributions from band members from Music/{{Boredoms}}, Music/NapalmDeath, and Music/{{Carcass}}, but more significantly, the band's guitarist was jazz guitarist Bill Frisell and its bass guitarist was Music/HenryCow guitarist Fred Frith, both of whom have illustrious solo careers.
152	** On ''Grand Guignol'', Bob Dorough, composer for ''WesternAnimation/SchoolhouseRock'' and Music/MilesDavis, is special guest.
153	** On ''Femina'', Music/LaurieAnderson provides the narration.
154	* SurfRock: One of the many genres he uses in his music.
155	* ThemeNaming: He has composed "game pieces", which are best described as musical {{Improv}} under a series of strict rules. He literally named several of these game pieces after sports, including ''Track & Field'', ''Baseball'', ''Lacrosse'', ''Dominoes'', ''Curling'', ''Golf'', ''Hockey'', ''Cricket'', ''Fencing'', ''Pool'', and ''Archery''.
156	* WhosOnFirst: A track on his collaboration with Derek Bailey and George Lewis, ''Yankees'' carries this title.
157	* WorldMusic: His work with the band Masada mixes klezmer music.

Context Music / JohnZorn