John Zorn: Hardboiled Bop

Saxophonist John Zorn is a modern avant-garde icon, but in the late 1980s he recorded several tributes to heroes of the 1950s and 60s hardbop era such as Hank Mobley and Sonny Clark, honoring them with an edgy passion that also revealed Zorn’s skills in a straightahead jazz setting. Writing about the first News for Lulu album, critic Art Lange said, “It reminds us that the ranks of post-bop players produced a number of great blowing tunes with witty or lyrical turns of phrase; it rescues these tunes from oblivion while communicating the joy and exhilaration at their essence, and shows that a fresh, imaginative and fearless attitude can revitalize such material without mimicking older performance styles.”

“John Zorn’s Hardboiled Bop” features music from both News for Lulu releases, as well as Voodoo: the Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet and other Zorn appearances with organist Big John Patton and saxophonist Lee Konitz. Sidemen include guitarist Bill Frisell and trombonist George Lewis. Some of Zorn’s late-1980s noir-influenced jazz is highlighted as well.

Read Robert Palmer’s 1987 New York Times review of Zorn’s Sonny Clark tribute.

Listen to a previous Night Lights program about Sonny Clark.

Guy Peters takes a look at John Zorn’s late-1980s and early-1990s recordings.

Read a recent profile of John Zorn.

Watch John Zorn live in 1987 playing as part of the Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet:

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