Naked City

The Profile

Naked City was an avant‑garde New York group led by composer/saxophonist John Zorn, active from 1988 to 1993, fusing free jazz, grindcore, noise, surf, and film‑noir aesthetics across a run of boundary‑smashing albums.

Core lineup: John Zorn (alto sax), Bill Frisell (guitar), Wayne Horvitz (keyboards), Fred Frith (bass), Joey Baron (drums), Yamatsuka Eye (vocals). Based in New York City; active 1988–1993. Known for extreme stylistic juxtapositions and rapid‑fire genre shifts.

Naked City, the New York avant‑garde group led by John Zorn (1988–1993), collides free jazz with grindcore, noise, surf, and klezmer. Reviews praise the extremity and imagination of albums like Grand Guignol, Torture Garden, Radio, Leng Tch’e, and Absinthe. Themes veer from theatrical horror to radio‑collage experiments and drone‑doom descents. Vocals by Yamatsuka Eye and a stellar band fuel the chaos.