Diamanda Galas – Wild Women With Steak Knives, The Divine Punishment, You Must Be Certain Of The Devil

John Zorn – Cobra, Speedfreaks, Forbidden Fruit

Mingus for counterpoint, harmonic and rhythmic invention, and melodic development. His compositions sort of look backwards and forwards simultaneously. It’s amazing to me that one composer wrote all three of those pieces – but open up and study the Mingus Fakebook and your mind will be completely blown.

Zorn for his groundbreaking use of improvisation in a composed context. Cobra is an incredibly ground breaking piece for improvisers – as important as “In C” in IMHO. In much of Zorn’s early work, music is pushed to a point of being near noise but only just so. Speedfreaks for how it is paced, its overall compositional arc (not sure how else to say it), and again how it sits on the razor’s edge of profundity and hilarity (noise/music).

Galas is an vital composer/performer that more students should be aware of. Her music is crucial and uncompromising and still (IMHO) misunderstood in much of the U.S. The scope of her vocal and compositional technique is very inspiring.