John Zorn - BBC Documentary (Downtown Avantgarde)

[muffinass]

Hello fellow Zorn fans...glad there's a forum/community out there that actively discusses Zorn's output.

In the need for more info on the grandaddy himself, I scoured the net and found about this 4-part series from 2000.

After putting it together from a few random sources, I've finally organized it together.

Enjoy, and if anybody has other Zorn docs or interviews from more recent times, please share the link.

Program 1: “Soho Music Gallery”
(July 1, 2000 London, England, BBC Radio 3)
- John Zorn: Spillane
- John Zorn: Wind Ko / La
- Anthony Braxton: To Pianist Cecil Taylor
- John Zorn: Mikhail Zoetrope
- John Zorn: Lacrosse
- John Zorn: Hockey
- John Zorn: Cobra
- John Zorn: Cartoon Music
- Derek Bailey: Improvised Music NY 1981
- Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet: Minor Meeting

www.megaupload.com/​​?d=WJOV4YK0

Program 2: “The Big Gundown”
(July 8, 2000 London, England, BBC Radio 3)
- John Zorn: Shuffle Boil
- John Zorn: The Big Gundown
- John Zorn: Spillane
- John Zorn / Kronos Quartet: Forbidden Fruit
- Kronos Quartet: Cat O Nine Tails
- Napalm Death: The Missing Link
- John Zorn: WRU

www.megaupload.com/​​?d=6V2P2NZK

Program 3: “Torture Garden”
(July 15, 2000 London, England, BBC Radio 3)
- Naked City: Lonely Woman
- Naked City: Snagglepuss
- Naked City: Igenious Ejaculation / Blood Duster / Hammerhead
- Naked City: Demon Sanctuary
- Naked City: Perfume Of A Critic’s Burning Flesh
- Painkiller: Pashupatinath
- Painkiller: Black Chamber
- Naked City: Grang Guignol
- Naked City: La Cathedrale Engolou
- John Zorn: Shteti (Ghetto Life)
- Masada: Halisah
- Masada: Ruach

www.megaupload.com/​?d=Q4SZW8FZ


Program 4: “Masada And Beyond”
(July 22, 2000 London, England, BBC Radio 3)
- Nani Nani: Eep Man
- John Zorn: In The Temple Of Hadjarim
- John Zorn: Night Hotel 2
- Satlah: Hasar Hamemuneh
- Satlah: Prem 17
- Milford Graves: Grand Unification
- John Patton: Congo Chant
- James Blood Ulmer: Devotion
- Stephen Drury: Carny
- John Zorn / American Composers Orchestra: Impetuoso
- John Zorn: Fils Des Etoiles

www.megaupload.com/​?d=SDTWFB1B

[sarahv]

Thanks for the upload!

[King]

When I click on the links I just get "404 Not Found" pages. Can you reupload them?

[sarahv]

I had trouble with the links too... when you click on it, it changes for some reason.

In the URL field you'll see this:
www.megaupload.com/%E2%80%8B?d=SDTWFB1B

Take out the stuff between / and ? so it says:
www.megaupload.com/​?d=SDTWFB1B

And then it should work. No idea why it's happening, but that works.

[dmtls]

Thank you very much muffinass for the upload!
As I cannot get megaupload to work [in general] is there anyone who can upload them to rapidshare?

[King]

Listening to this stuff now. Its fucking amazing. Hadn't heard much about this Theatre of Musical Optics stuff before. Sounds bloody bizarre.

[sarahv]

For those who can't get those links to work, I re-upped it on sendspace:
www.sendspace.com/file/setw5a
www.sendspace.com/file/g07a7o
www.sendspace.com/file/66xrj1
www.sendspace.com/file/7q784o

[Offering]

I remember hearing this when it was on over here.....I recorded it onto cassette too ( remember them? ), but I cant find em now......It is / was a great show.....

[antonizer]

Wow, fantastic! Thanks a bunch.

[dmtls]

Thank you very much sarahv for reuploading it to sendspace! Now, let's hear what this BBC documentary is all about..

[King]

Parts 1 and 2 were the best. Zorn's earlier work is much more interesting to listen/talk ABOUT than his later work I think.

[Sordel]

Yes, I listened to this today and thanks very much for making it available.

It's interesting how the perspective of the series (due to the fact that it seemed to be from the end of the 1990s) was very much that Zorn was turning into an academic composer. Looked at from the perspective of Moonchild and Electric Masada, I don't think we'd have quite the same perspective on that today.

It's also amazing how much ground two hours of audio documentary can fail to cover ...

[King]

What did they fail to cover?

[Sordel]

king said:

What did they fail to cover?

Um, so now I give a list and it looks like I wasn't paying attention? They may have been mentioned, but I thought that the documentary was weak on Filmworks and missed the significance of Bar Kokhba and The Circle Maker.

Of course, what's most significantly absent is what Zorn has done since 2000, which can hardly be regarded as the documentary makers' fault! Maybe if we were making it again today, though, we'd see the varying prominence of the albums differently: even the later Naked City albums were handled skimpily, yet retrospectively they seem to be a more useful guide to Zorn's development than the first couple.

[King]

I honestly think that the significance of Bar Kokhba and Circle Maker etc. is almost non-existent compared to the significance of Zorn's work with structured improvisation, Naked City/Painkiller, and the writing of the Masada book in general. They're nice albums, sure, but not as important as the likes of Cobra or Grand Guignol, I feel.