American saxophonist and composer, born 2 September 1953 in New York City, USA. He owns the Tzadik record label and has worked with a large number of experimental musicians, particularly in improvised music, modern classical music and jazz, though he has produced music in most styles. As a child, he played piano, guitar and flute. He went to college in St. Louis where he discovered free jazz, before dropping out and moving to Manhattan. There he gave concerts in his small apartment, playing a variety of reeds, duck calls, tapes, etc; almost anything. In the mid 1980s he signed to the Elektra Nonesuch label. Since then, he has released a very large number of records, usually putting out several each year. Zorn's recorded output includes records by two bands of his own, Masada (a klezmer band playing music that is often described as Jewish jazz) and Naked City (an often aggressive mix of jazz, rock and grindcore). He has also worked with musicians like Bill Frisell, Derek Bailey, Fred Frith, Keiji Haino, and Bill Laswell. He has written music for television and film, which has been collected in the ongoing Filmworks series of records on his Tzadik label. Some of these are jazz-based, others are classical. He has also written several "game pieces", in which performers are allowed to improvise while following certain structural rules. These works are in the main named after sports, and include Pool, Archery and Lacrosse, as well as Cobra.

Classic solo Zorn. No one plays the alto quite the way he does.

Alto Saxophone – John Zorn, Tim Berne
Artwork [Cover Art] – Mark Beyer
Bass – Mark Dresser
Drums – Joey Baron, Michael Vatcher
Engineer – Steve Rinkoff
Engineer [Mixing] – Martin Bisi
Mastered By – Robert C. Ludwig
Producer – John Zorn
Producer [Associate] – Elliott Sharp
Recorded August 18 and 19, 1988, at Power Station, New York City.
Mixed October 18 and 19, 1988, at B.C. Studio, Brooklyn, New York.
Tim Berne is heard in the left channel. John Zorn is heard in the right channel.
CD print information
Ⓟ1989 Elektra/Asylum/Nonesuch Records
Made In U.S.A. by WEA Manufacturing Inc.

In the summer of 2007, I gave a reading at a church in Amherst, Massachusetts. I began the reading, as I ordinarily do, with a bunch of letters I get at WFMU (where I am a DJ going by the name of Kenny G) intended for the other Kenny G. (You can read more about these letters and view several of them here at the Brooklyn Rail)
After the reading, a young man came up to me with his hand outstretched and said, "Kenny G. May I introduce myself. I'm John Zorn." Now, I know what John Zorn looks like and, friends, this was not that John Zorn. As it turned out, he was the other John Zorn, better known as the composer Jonathan Zorn. We immediately looked at each other and realized that we just had to do a collaboration, the fruits of which appear here. I simply read several of my Kenny G letters and sent the files to Mr. Zorn to work his magic on.
All of these are true. I haven't touched 'em. None of the names have been changed to protect the innocent. All resemblances to persons living or dead are entirely uncoincidental. Rock on!
Kenneth Goldsmith
New York City, November 2007
The Kenny G Letters (2007)
voice: Kenneth Goldsmith, electronics: Jonathan Zorn, saxophone samples: Kenny G Duotones and John Zorn The Classic Guide to Strategy
Since the beginning of my involvement in experimental and improvised music I've known that eventually I would have to creatively address the peculiarity of being the "other" Jo(h)n Zorn. So when Kenneth Goldsmith (the other Kenny G) asked me to set the Kenny G Letters to music it seemed like the perfect project for playing with my name. I said yes right away and then had to think for awhile as to what setting a text would mean in the context of my compositional activity. Much of my recent work had been in developing interactive computer music systems for small ensembles, and we agreed that I should in some way use samples that alluded to our various "other" names, so it seemed fitting to approach this project in a similar way to my interactive pieces and think of the overall sound as a trio of voice and two saxophones with live electronics. I set about the task of creating eight different systems that could listen to all three players and respond to coincidences and relations between them. Some of the letters, such as the one from the Brazilian fan seeking Miami Sound Machine lyrics, immediately suggested processes from previous pieces, in this case the repetitive nature of the spoken lyrics suggested adapting the program I created for Talking/Typing. Since I knew these would be first and foremost recorded pieces and not necessarily performance pieces, I felt that I should continue these processes in ways beyond what I could do in a live performance. In some cases I carried out the processes multiple times with different variations leading to dense multi-layered textures of electronic sound. In others I re-entered the processed tracks in the same system with different relations to create more complex correspondences between the voice and sampled sounds.
The challenge for me in working with the letters was to continue along the lines of my previous pieces with voice and electronics while keeping the voice as intelligible as possible. In many of my previous pieces I tend to obscure the voice and break up the syntax. In the Letters no matter how complex the processes became they were all done with the aim that the voice should remain for the most part intelligible, so that the listener might enjoy the sounds as well as the bizarreness of the letters.
Jonathan Zorn
Charlottesville, VA, November 2007

Alto Saxophone - John Zorn
Percussion - Milford Graves

Patrick Bruce Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer. He is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works, and other side projects. His style incorporates elements of progressive and contemporary jazz, Latin jazz, and jazz fusion.

Credits
Artwork [Collages] – John Zorn
Design – Chippy (3), HHC*
Drums – Kenny Grohowski
Ensemble – Simulacrum (3)
Executive-Producer [Associate Producer] – Kazunori Sugiyama
Guitar – Matt Hollenberg
Mastered By [Mastering] – Scott Hull (2)
Music By [All Music By], Composed By, Arranged By, Conductor [Conducted By] – John Zorn
Organ, Clavinet – John Medeski
Producer – John Zorn
Recorded By [Recording], Mixed By [Mixing] – Marc Urselli

Artwork – John Zorn
Composed By, Arranged By, Conductor – John Zorn
Design – Chippy, Heung-Heung Chin
Drums – Kenny Grohowski
Ensemble – Simulacrum
Executive-Producer [Associate Producer] – Kazunori Sugiyama
Guitar – Matt Hollenberg
Mastered By – Scott Hull
Organ – John Medeski
Producer – John Zorn
Recorded By, Mixed By – Marc Urselli
Recorded and mixed May - June 2015 at EastSide Sound, NYC

Following up on the success of 2013’s Dreamachines, the third release by the classic Nova Express quartet is inspired by and dedicated to American poetic genius and father of free verse Walt Whitman. Combining the hypnotic swirls of minimalism, beautiful lyricism and the free intensity of improvisation, On Leaves of Grass is an exhilarating addition to Zorn’s growing collection of mystical transcendental works. An emotional and virtuosic outing from this Downtown supergroup performing music that speaks to the eternal.