“Many people know John Zorn from his improvisational music or from his death metal band. In the classical world they are surprised to hear that he also composes string quartets, with actual notes on a page. And he does that a lot. I think I’ve played about fifty of his pieces now. You haven’t yet rehearsed one thing before he has already written a new work for you. Zorn always writes more for people than for instruments, that human connection is what he is all about.”
Jay Campbell is cellist of the New York JACK Quartet, which focuses on contemporary music. On Thursday, November 2, the JACK Quartet will play in the Groningen new music festival Sounds of Music. The program is entirely dedicated to the experimental composer and improviser John Zorn, who is celebrating his 70th birthday. Take the JACKs Zorn’s complete string quartets for his label Tzadik. The JACK Quartet will also perform in the November Music’s Zorn weekend in Den Bosch.
‘Fucking awesome’
“The first time I played music by Zorn was eleven years ago, when I was still at the conservatory. Shortly afterwards I was asked to fill in for a performance for his sixtieth birthday and we immediately hit it off. We are now good friends, we have the same musical values. Zorn naturally thinks it is important that you play the right notes, but above all he is concerned that as a musician you put everything you have into the battle. His music is so physical, so expressive, so bigger-than-man-Romantic, sometimes it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
“Our violinist recently broke his wrist just before a performance the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. I had just played a Mendelssohn quartet at a summer festival with a young student with no experience with new music, but I was sure she was the perfect substitute. She was. We only had 45 minutes of rehearsal time. During the performance, Zorn was sitting behind her chair and I kept hearing him mumble: ‘That’s fucking awesome!’. Now she is also part of the family and Zorn writes pieces for her.
“In 2017 we also played with our quartet in Sounds of Music in Groningen, I have good memories of that. We stayed on a houseboat: great. Except for the two members of our quartet, who are quite tall and had to stoop all the time. I also remember a student ensemble performing music by Julia Wolfe. Insane! It wouldn’t hurt if young people had a little less anxiety Fifth by Tchaikovsky (which is a great piece) and play some more new music. You can’t start early enough with that. Preschoolers are actually the best audience for Xenakis and Zorn, they react very primarily and understand that this music is sometimes also fun.”
JACK Quartet plays John Zorn:
2/11 Grand Theater Groningen. Info: soundsofmusic.nl.
4/11 November Music Den Bosch (with Barbara Hannigan). Info: novembermusic.net