John Lurie | |
|---|---|
 Lurie in 2013 | |
| Born | (1952-12-14)December 14, 1952 (age 72) Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1978–present |
| Known for | The Lounge Lizards |
| Television | Painting with John,Fishing with John,Oz |
| Relatives | Evan Lurie (brother) |
| Website | www |
John Lurie (born December 14, 1952) is an American musician, painter, actor, director, and producer. He co-foundedthe Lounge Lizards jazz ensemble; has acted in 19 films, includingStranger than Paradise andDown by Law; has composed and performed music for 20 television and film works; and he produced, directed, and starred in theFishing with John television series. In 1996 his soundtrack forGet Shorty was nominated for aGrammy Award, and his albumThe Legendary Marvin Pontiac: Greatest Hits has been praised by critics and fellow musicians.[1]
Since 2000, he has suffered from symptoms attributed tochronic Lyme disease and has focused his attention on painting.[2] His art has been shown in galleries and museums around the world. Hisprimitivist paintingBear Surprise became aninternet meme in Russia in 2006. His television series,Painting with John, debuted onHBO in January 2021 and ran for three seasons before being cancelled.[3][4] Lurie's 1980s NYC memoir,The History of Bones, was published by Penguin Random House in August 2021.[5]
Lurie was born inMinneapolis, Minnesota, and raised with his brotherEvan and sister Liz inNew Orleans, Louisiana, andWorcester, Massachusetts.[6][7] His mother, an artist, wasWelsh, and his father was halfRussian Jewish and halfSicilian.[8][9]
In high school, he played basketball and harmonica andjammed withMississippi Fred McDowell andCanned Heat in 1968.[6] He briefly played the harmonica in a band fromBoston, but soon switched to the guitar and eventually the saxophone.[10]
After high school, he hitchhiked across the United States toBerkeley, California. He moved to New York City in 1974, then briefly visited London, where he performed his first saxophone solo at the Acme Gallery.[6]
In 1978 John formedthe Lounge Lizards with his brotherEvan Lurie on piano; they were the only constant members in the band through numerous lineup changes.
Robert Palmer ofThe New York Times described the band as "staking out new territory west ofMingus, east ofBernard Herrman." While originally a somewhat satirical "fake jazz" combo spawned by the noisyNo Wave music scene, the Lounge Lizards gradually became a showcase for Lurie's increasingly sophisticated compositions. The band had five to eight members. Musicians included, at different times, guitaristsArto Lindsay,Marc Ribot,David Tronzo, Michele Navazio and Danny Blumenthal; cellistJane Scarpantoni; vibraphonistBryan Carrott; keyboardistJohn Medeski; drummersAnton Fier,Grant Calvin Weston and Dougie Bowne; percussionistsBilly Martin, E.J. Rodriguez andBen Perowsky; bassistsErik Sanko,Tony Scherr,Oren Bloedow andTony Garnier; trumpeterSteven Bernstein; trombonistCurtis Fowlkes and saxophonistsRoy Nathanson andMichael Blake. They made music for 20 years.
In 1999 Lurie released the albumThe Legendary Marvin Pontiac: Greatest Hits, a posthumous collection of the work of an African-Jewish musician named Marvin Pontiac, a fictional character Lurie created. It includes a biographical profile describing the troubled genius's hard life, and the cover shows a photograph purported to be one of the few ever taken of him.[11] Lurie wrote the music and performed withJohn Medeski,Billy Martin, G. Calvin Weston,Marc Ribot, andTony Scherr. The album received praise fromDavid Bowie,Angelique Kidjo,Iggy Pop,Leonard Cohen and others. On choosing to create a character to whom the album would be fictionally credited, Lurie said in a 2008 interview, "For a long time, I was threatening to do a vocal record. But the idea of me putting out a record where I sang seemed ostentatious or pretentious. Like the music ofTelly Savalas . . . I don't sing very well, I was shy about it. As a character, it made it easier."[11]
Elmore Leonard's 2002 novelTishomingo Blues has detailed descriptions of Marvin Pontiac's biography and music, crediting him with influencing Iggy Pop and David Bowie.[12]
In 2017, John Lurie released his first music album in 17 years,Marvin Pontiac: The Asylum Tapes.[13]
Parallel to the final version of the Lounge Lizards in the early 1990s, Lurie formed a smaller group, the John Lurie National Orchestra. Lurie played alto and soprano saxes, Grant Calvin Weston played drums, and Billy Martin performed on congas, timbales, kalimba, and other small percussion. Unlike the tightly-arranged music of the Lounge Lizards, the Orchestra's music was heavily improvised and compositions were credited to all three musicians.
They released the albumMen With Sticks (Crammed Discs 1993) and recorded music for theFishing With John TV series. In February 2014 the Orchestra releasedThe Invention of Animals, a collection of out-of-print studio tracks and unreleased live recordings from the '90s. Columnist Mel Minter wrote:
This new release may require a reassessment of Lurie the saxophonist because the playing is engagingly fluid, inventive, and visceral—and well worth revisiting. . . . The emotional immediacy of Lurie's playing – and that of his partners – makes for riveting stuff. Think of his sax not so much as a musical instrument, but instead, as a window with a clear view of his soul.[14][15]
Jeff Jackson of Jazziz added, "The resulting music is delicate, primal and utterly gorgeous."[16]
In 1993 Lurie composed the theme toLate Night with Conan O'Brien withHoward Shore. The theme was also used when O'Brien hosted onThe Tonight Show. Lurie formed his own record label in 1998, Strange & Beautiful Music, and released the Lounge Lizards albumQueen of All Ears and aFishing with John soundtrack.
Lurie has written scores for over 20 movies, includingStranger than Paradise,Down by Law,Mystery Train,Clay Pigeons,Animal Factory, andGet Shorty, for which he received aGrammy Award nomination.[17]
In the 1980s, Lurie starred in theJim Jarmusch filmsStranger Than Paradise andDown by Law, and made cameos in the filmsPermanent Vacation andDowntown 81. He went on to act in other notable films includingParis, Texas,Wild at Heart andThe Last Temptation of Christ. From 2001 to 2003 he starred in theHBO prison seriesOz as inmateGreg Penders.[18]
Lurie wrote, directed and starred in the TV seriesFishing with John in 1991, which featured guestsTom Waits,Willem Dafoe,Matt Dillon,Jim Jarmusch, andDennis Hopper. It aired onIFC andBravo. It has since become a cult classic[19] and was released on DVD byCriterion.
In January 2021, Lurie's seriesPainting with John first aired on HBO. In June 2021, he announced that a second season of the show was planned and that for the first time in 22 years, he was rehearsing music for it.[20] The third and final season ofPainting with John, consisting of six episodes, first aired on June 2, 2023. Lurie's friend and fellow musicianFlea appeared in one of the episodes.[21]
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Lurie has been painting since the 1970s.[22] Most of his early works are in watercolor and pencil, but in the 2000s he began working in oil. In 2011, he said of his art, "My paintings are a logical development from the ones that were taped to the refrigerator 50 years ago."[23]
His work has been exhibited since July 2003, when two pieces were shown at the Nolan/Eckman Gallery in New York City.[24] He had his first solo gallery exhibition at Anton Kern Gallery in May and June 2004 and has subsequently been exhibited at Galerie Daniel Blau inMunich, Galerie Lelong inZürich, the Galerie Gabriel Rolt inAmsterdam, the Basel International Art Fair at Roebling Hall and theP.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York, theMontreal Museum of Fine Arts, the NEXT Art Fair in Chicago, theMudamLuxembourg, theWatari Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, Gallery Brown in Los Angeles, and the University of the Arts inPhiladelphia.[25][22][24]The Museum of Modern Art has acquired some of his work for their permanent collection.[26]
Lurie has released two art books.Learn To Draw, a compilation of black and white drawings, was published by Walther Konig in June 2006.A Fine Example of Art includes over 80 reproductions of his work and was published by powerHouse Books in 2008.
Lurie's watercolor paintingBear Surprise was enormously popular on numerous Russian websites in anInternet meme known asPreved.[27]
Lurie has never married. He detailed many of his romantic relationships between the 1970s and 1990s in his 2021 memoirThe History of Bones. In August 2010, Lurie was reported to be dating a woman named Jill Goodwin (b. 1979).[28]
Lurie became ill with neurological symptoms in 1994,[17] and has experienced debilitating ill health since 2000.[17] At one point he was told he had a year to live.[10] During this time, he wrote in a mad dash until his brain fog got so severe that he had to stop writing.[29]
He stated in a 2006 interview that he has "Advanced Lyme",[6] referring tochronic Lyme disease. He has stated that his diagnosis was received from "eight different purveyors of contemporary medicine" after years of disagreement among his physicians.[30] Lurie's illness prevents him from acting or performing music, so he spends his time painting.[6][31]
In August 2010,Tad Friend wrote a piece inThe New Yorker about Lurie disappearing from New York to avoid a man named John Perry, who Friend said wasstalking Lurie.[28] In the online literary magazineThe Rumpus,Rick Moody noted that Friend's profile inThe New Yorker, nominally about Lurie and his art, was two-thirds to three-quarters about Perry, including a full page photo of Perry standing in front of one of his own paintings. Moody described Perry as a deceitful stalker capable of violence and was also critical of Friend's "ungenerous" characterization of Lurie's illness as a "mysterious disease."[30]
In May 2011 Perry undertook a publichunger strike to protestThe New Yorker characterizing him as a stalker. Commenting about the protest, Lurie said, "He's conducting a hunger strike a half block from my house to prove he's not a stalker."[32] Lurie described the article as "wildly inaccurate," noting that its publication did not resolve anything and that "the situation continues."[17]
EditorDavid Remnick said the piece in his magazine was "thoroughly reported and fact-checked."[32] But in a letter toThe New Yorker in August 2012, several interviewees claimed their words had been "twisted, misquoted, or ignored," and that "the man presented in the article [Lurie] is not the man that we know."[33] In a February 2014 interview, Lurie told theLos Angeles Times, "What one would hope is that the beauty in the music and in the paintings can somehow transcend and invalidate the kind of sickness that led to the article being written as it was and the kind of irresponsibility that allowed it to be published."[34]
In December 2023, Lurie condemned Israel's actions in Gaza as a "genocide" andIsrael's apartheid system, stating onTwitter, "Apparently it is bad for your career to say you are opposed to genocide. But fuck it. I am opposed to genocide. I am opposed to apartheid. I am opposed to children having limbs amputated without anesthesia. You absolute fucks."[35]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Rome '78 | Unknown | |
| 1979 | Men in Orbit | Astronaut | Also writer, director |
| 1980 | Underground U.S.A. | Jack Smith | |
| The Offenders | The Lizard | ||
| Permanent Vacation | Sax player | Also composer | |
| 1981 | Downtown 81 | Himself | |
| Subway Riders | The Saxophonist | Also composer | |
| 1983 | Variety | — | Composer |
| 1984 | Stranger Than Paradise | Willie | Also composer |
| Paris, Texas | Slater | ||
| 1985 | Desperately Seeking Susan | Neighbor Saxophonist | |
| 1986 | Down by Law | Jack | Also composer |
| 1988 | The Last Temptation of Christ | James | |
| Il piccolo diavolo | Cusatelli | English title:The Little Devil | |
| 1989 | Mystery Train | — | Composer |
| 1990 | Wild at Heart | Sparky | |
| 1991 | Fishing with John | Himself | Also creator, director, composer |
| Keep It for Yourself | — | Short film; composer | |
| 1992 | John Lurie and the Lounge Lizards Live in Berlin 1991 | Himself | Documentary |
| 1993 | Late Night with Conan O'Brien | — | Composed title theme |
| 1995 | Get Shorty | — | Composer |
| Blue in the Face | — | Composer | |
| 1996 | Just Your Luck | Coker | |
| Manny & Lo | — | Composer | |
| 1997 | Excess Baggage | — | Composer |
| 1998 | New Rose Hotel | Distinguished Man | |
| Lulu on the Bridge | — | Composer | |
| Clay Pigeons | — | Composer | |
| 2000 | Sleepwalk | Frank | |
| Animal Factory | — | Composer | |
| 2001 | SpongeBob SquarePants | Himself | Archival footage fromFishing With John (Episode: "Hooky") |
| 2001–03 | Oz | Greg Penders | 12 episodes |
| 2004 | Tortured by Joy | Narrator | Short film |
| 2005 | Face Addict | — | Composer |
| 2010–11 | Mobsters | Narrator | |
| 2021-2023 | Painting with John | Himself | Also creator, director |
as John Lurie National Orchestra
as Marvin Pontiac
Albums
Other soundtrack releases
Studio albums
Live albums
Media related toJohn Lurie at Wikimedia Commons