As part of John Zorn’s yearlong 60th birthday celebration, fellow NYC institution Metropolitan Museum of Art invited the visionary composer to juxtapose an entire day of his romantic, turbulent, calamitous works with art from its collection. From open to close, Zorn’s bustling music ricocheted off the walls thanks to an all-star lineup of co-conspiritors — Mike Patton hocking loogies outside Egypt’s 2,000-year-old Temple of Dendur, William Winant performing impossible feats of percussion in front of New Guinean anscestral poles, acclaimed a capella quartet Mycale swooning through Masada pieces on the patio of a 16th century Spanish castle, and, most notably, Zorn himself squawking through unrelenting splatter-jazz with Milford Graves in front of Jackson Pollack’s “Autumn Rhythm (Number 30).” SPIN was there for the entire day, and Vine’d all 13 performances at this unique event. Watch this monumental day at the musuem in chronological order — from the opening six-trumpet fanfare in the Great Hall to Zorn’s closing drones on the collection’s Thomas Appleton pipe organ, built in 1830.
Watch John Zorn and Mike Patton Terrorize the Met Museum for 11 Hours… in 77 Seconds!
