You got any of his 2011 releases? I picked up all 5 that I know of. I must highly recommend At the Gates of Paradise. It's straight up mellow. Which is surprising coming from Zorn, but it's solid. His Christmas album is really sweet too. I hate Christmas music for the most part, but that's refreshing (A Dreamer's Christmas). Nova Express was all right. Enigmata was too much for me at the moment. I'll have to see if I change my mind later. Satyr/Cerberus was interesting for the concept, but hard to listen to as well...

Has anyone seen A Bookshelf on Top of the Sky: 12 Stories About John Zorn by any chance? I was recently told about it but haven't watched it yet.

It's great if you skip through and watch the clips of Zorn that it shows, but the director makes it almost all about herself and provides little insight to Zorn that you wouldn't have known already.

Yeah, the director is definitely a pain but it's really cool seeing Zorn rehearse and compose. He comes across as really relaxed and friendly; I was expecting him to be a little intense. If you still haven't seen it you should check it out. It may or may not be all on youtube......

i've only heard Naked City and Astronome thus far

love both

Is Zorn actually religious? I've noticed he's been making some traditionally melodic religious music recently.

I don't know if he himself is Jewish, but his roots are. He's done a lot of radical Jewish culture music following the album Kristallnacht. I couldn't find anything on his religion, but to no avail. Maybe his Christmas album last year can be evidence that he is secular and appreciates the music that religions use? Just a guess. I do think that he is Jewish, though.

John Zorn - Gevurah - YouTube

Based mostly on seeing the name pop up in Frownland's "now listening to" on last.fm, I decided to give John Zorn a go. Seems pretty rad so far, although he has a hell of a discography. I've been mainly using rateyourmusic reviews to decide which albums to listen to (I've listened to Naked City and his first Filmworks album so far), but if you guys have specific recommendations I'd love to hear them.