''Kristallnacht'' is an album by

John Zorn John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conductor, saxophonist, arranger and producer who "deliberately resists category". Zorn's avant-garde and experimental approaches to composition and improvisation are inclusive of jaz ...

first released in 1993 on the

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese Eva label and subsequently in 1995 on Zorn's own Tzadik Records label.

Background

Zorn's compositions for the album were based around the events before, during, and following the infamous

Night of Broken Glass () or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's Sturmabteilung, (SA) paramilitary and Schutzstaffel, (SS) paramilitary forces along ...

and represented his first musical exploration of his Jewish cultural heritage. Zorn has stated:

It’s tied together with passion and research. Every Jew has to come to grips with the holocaust in some kind of way and that was my statement, that’s how I did it. I do not need to do it again (…) it meant a lot to me. It was like a whole lifetime of denying my Jewish heritage coming out in one piece -- "John Zorn on BBC Jazz File," July 2000.

Reception

The AllMusic review by Joslyn Layne stated: "John Zorn has created a musical work that powerfully represents the different stages of this historical event... Zorn's forceful undertaking is realized through the expert and passionate musicianship".Layne, J. AllMusic Reviewaccessed March 16, 2009. The Penguin Guide to Jazz said "Here are the seeds of what was to be a wholesale engagement - or re-engagement - with Jewish musical culture, most clearly represented in the Masada project of future years, but retroactively evident throughout the work of the previous decade and more. A key moment, even if the man himself wasn't playing".

Track listing

:''All compositions by John Zorn'' :*Recorded and mixed on November 9 & 10 1992 at RPM Studio, New York City

Personnel

* Anthony Coleman: Keyboards * Mark Dresser: Bass * Mark Feldman: Violin * David Krakauer: Clarinet, bass clarinet * Frank London: Trumpet * Marc Ribot: Guitar * William Winant: Percussion

References

{{Authority control 1995 albums John Zorn albums Albums produced by John Zorn Tzadik Records albums