New Music Now
Thursday, April 17 and Friday, April 18
Institute of Contemporary Art
South Boston
Tickets and more information.

John Zorn is famous and weird enough that, when he was awarded the MacArthur "genius" grant, The Colbert Report made a joke. Sort of "my kid can paint modern art," except with saxophone reeds and adults. Zorn's music is challenging, to be sure, but anybody looking for wall-to-wall noise might be disappointed by his newer work. The rest of us are jazzed.

Zorn is the headliner for Institute of Contemporary Art's New Music Now series. Tonight, Zorn presents a world premiere commission: a performance of music from his long running Masada series, featuring Zorn on alto saxophone, Greg Cohen on bass and Kenny Wollesen on drums. It's a fusion of secular and sacred Jewish music, served on a bed of jazzy rhythm. Opening will be a violin and piano duo, Mark Feldman and Sylvie Couvoisier, performing selections from Zorn's Malphas - The Book of Angels.

Not to be overlooked: New Music Now curators Ned Rothenberg and Marty Ehrlich perform their own music tomorrow night. Rothenberg, a reeds player, will be performing his composition "Inner Diaspora" in a quintet including cello, violin, guitar, and tabla. Ehrlich, a captivating clarinetist and reeds player, will perform in a jazz sextet featuring such luminaries as trombonist Ray Anderson.