At that point, we only had the upstairs performance space that was about half the size it is now. We were averaging between 30 and 40 people on our good shows. That night we squeezed about 100 people into our room. I never saw so many people packed in a space that size. It was the premier of Hu Die with Fred Frith and Bill Frisell on guitars and Ruby Change reading texts of Arto Lindsay. It was one of the most interesting pieces of music I had ever seen. Additionally, we sold over $100 worth of tea that night -- I knew this guy was special. Over the next few years, John presented over a dozen different projects; from The Music of Ornette Coleman to Dorhy Ashby to Sonny Clark to improvisations with people too numerous to mention.
In 1989, John approached me with a new project called Naked City. John wanted us to produce five nights of rehearsal/concerts at the club, but as had been the case the first time we did a booking, the club was already committed to other musicians. I made a deal with the antique store next to us to rent it for five nights and put on Naked City. However the day before the concert, after we had made posters and placed ads in the papers, the owner of the store bailed out. I went down to the restaurant located below the club in our building to ask her to let us use her space. We had been trying to persuade her for about three months to sell us her lease, but we couldn't agree on a price. Now, she wanted $1000 bucks a night to use her space, even though her rent was $3000 per month. We were desperate to find a space to put this on, so we finally made a deal to buy her lease and all the equipment in her restaurant. The deal was finalized the day of Naked City's premiere.
The five days and nights John, Bill Frisell, Fred Frith, Joey Baron, and Wayne Horvitz played and rehearsed were amazing. The first morning John came in at 10am with the rest of the band and passed out a booklet of his songs he had prepared. By 9pm the group had learned 25 songs and played them for a standing-room crowd in our new space. The next morning, the band came in, John game them 15 new songs, and by show time they had those down and also played some of the old material. This went on each day. In five days they had a whole repertoire and went on a European tour as if they had been together for years.
Naked City, like many of the other projects being presented this month , demonstrates the prolific qualities of John and the caliber of musicians with whom he works. Like the way I book the club, John enjoys to listen to and perform many types of music. There is no composer as eclectic as Zorn. From Classical to Hard Core, his work spans the spectrum and he's just 40 years old this month. It is hard to imagine the amount of work and what he will have amassed when he's sixty. In celebration of John's birthday, I wanted to offer a sampling of his talent to the many people who, like myself, love his music. Oh yea, if your in the club, don't forget to buy some tea or beer.
Michael Dorf
Owner & Director