JOHN ZORN'S FLATLANDS
About This Event
Composer and saxophonist John Zorn appears at National Sawdust, presenting work that moves between contemporary classical composition and experimental improvisation. Known for assembling shifting ensembles and drawing on jazz, rock, Jewish musical traditions and cinematic textures, Zorn's performances favor composed structures that can break open in real time.
About Flatlands
Tdorante10
John Zorn’s *Flatlands* arrives at National Sawdust as a chamber-scaled project that treats composition and improvisation as adjacent languages. Built for shifting lineups, the music moves through notated structures and abrupt ruptures, with traces of downtown jazz, amplified rock timbres, Jewish modal inflections, and film-score logic. In a city where Zorn has long shaped the post-1970s “downtown” tradition, *Flatlands* reads as both document and continuation. Its real subject is control: how quickly a written plan can be rerouted by human choice.
About the Artist
John Zorn
John Zorn is a New York-based composer, saxophonist, conductor, and producer whose work moves between contemporary classical writing and experimental improvisation. He is known for assembling shifting ensembles and using abrupt stylistic contrasts, drawing on jazz, rock, Jewish music, and film-rooted atmospheres without settling into a single idiom.