JACK Quartet Releases John Zorn’s Complete String Quartets

Released on Tzadik Records, the album features all eight of Zorn’s string quartets in a premiere two-disc set

Dedicated to performing and commissioning 20th and 21st-century string quartet music, the GRAMMY-nominated JACK Quartet comprises violinists Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Jay Campbell. 

The group has now released “The Complete String Quartets” featuring the American composer John Zorn’s string quartets for the first time in a two-disc album released on Zorn’s own label, Tzadik Records. 

Written from 1988 to 2017, each of Zorn’s quartets showcases the expansion of musical language across time and the evolution of techniques required to perform them. 

The album includes Zorn’s Cat O’Nine Tails (1988); The Dead Man (1990); Memento Mori (1992); Kol Nidre (1996); Necronomicon (2003); The Alchemist (2011); The Remedy of Fortune (2015); and The Unseen (2017). 

A close collaborator of the JACK Quartet since 2007, Zorn composed the last two quartets on the album with the group in mind. The partnership has seen JACK perform close to 100 concerts of Zorn’s compositions across international venues. 

With hundreds of album credits as a performer, composer, and producer, Zorn is best-known for his jazz, improvised, and contemporary classical music. He has led the punk jazz band Naked City, and the klezmer-influenced quartet Masada, plus has written concert music for classical ensembles, and produced music for film and documentary. 

“The string quartet format is very dear to my heart — Bartók, Webern, and Carter being among my personal favorites,” Zorn said in the press release. “It has always been a dream to create a catalog of pieces for string quartet that could stand alongside these masterpieces — and on hearing these astounding recordings that the formidable JACK Quartet has made of my eight quartets it feels like I might have accomplished that goal,” he added. “Challenging, idiosyncratic, but with a profound connection to tradition, this is a uniquely compelling body of work.”

To mark the album release, the quartet will be performing a concert on January 17, 2025 featuring Ikue Mori as a guest soloist at Brooklyn’s Roulette Intermedium. 

Now celebrating its 20th season, the JACK Quartet has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Berlin Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall, Muziekgebouw, The Louvre, Kölner Philharmonie, the Lucerne Festival, La Biennale di Venezia, Suntory Hall, and more. 

Among their honors include the Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Fromm Music Foundation Prize. They were also the recipient of the Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award, New Music USA’s Trailblazer Award, and the CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming.

Their other albums include music by Helmut Lachenmann, Catherine Lamb, Du Yun, Nick Dunston, Zosha di Castri, Iannis Xenakis, and in addition to Zorn, an upcoming release of the complete quartets of Elliott Carter. 

Based in New York City, JACK is currently the Quartet in Residence at the Mannes School of Music. The group also teaches at various summer music festivals worldwide and regularly mentors students of the University of Iowa String Quartet Residency Program.