John Zorn's Occult Genius

Jason Pitzl-Waters — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 17:08:00 +0000

John Zorn, an experimental jazz composer and recent winner of a MacArthur “genius grant”, has his most recent release “From Silence to Sorcery” reviewed by All About Jazz. The magazine notes that Zorn has focused quite a bit on the occult in his recent works.

“Zorn’s recent interest in the occult has been apparent in his chamber music scores. Magick (Tzadik, 2004), Rituals (Tzadik, 2005) and Mysterium (Tzadik, 2005) have all been directly inspired by various occult rituals and traditions. This album is no exception … The opening piece, “Goetia,” is named after a type of black magic used to conjure evil spirits … The second composition, “Gris-Gris” is inspired by Haitian Voodoo rituals and Korean Shamanism.”

Also of note in Zorn’s recent discography is “Moonchild: Songs Without Words” (featuring vocal contributions by Mike Patton), which deals heavily with Aleister Crowley and Thelema. This recent focus makes one wonder if Zorn’s interest in the occult is merely academic or if he has embraced magick as a practitioner. It isn’t so far-fetched considering the fact that Zorn himself denies being some sort of postmodern ironist.

“I see myself and many artists like me as the torchbearers through these dark ages … People for the most part see me as a pastiche artist, as an ironist, as this sort of postmodern poster boy. This is not at all what I’m about, and it never has been. I have wit in my work and a sense of humor, but I do not use irony in any way. I’m not interested in pastiche. I put together the influences of my life in as clear a way as I possibly can…”

In another recent interview Zorn admits to “reading a lot of Aleister Crowley”, raising the possibility that Zorn is the first MacArthur fellow to publicly admit being an occult practitioner. No doubt the spirit of Graham Bond (and perhaps Crowley himself) is smiling down on this turn of events.

The Wild Hunt » Jazz

John Zorn's Occult Genius