John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American
avant-garde composer,
arranger,
producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist with hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, and producer across a variety of genres including
jazz, rock, hardcore, classical, surf, metal,
klezmer, soundtrack, ambient and
improvised music. He incorporates diverse styles in his compositions which he identifies as
avant-garde or
experimental. Zorn was described by
Down Beat as "one of our most important composers".