7/28/2023 0 Comments Julius eastman![]() He titled his pieces in ways that forced his peers to reckon with his presence as a gay Black man in a field considered almost necessarily white, and he flouted notions of musical structure and form in ways even innovators like Philip Glass and Terry Riley-now rightfully considered his equals-didn’t. A respected performer in his day, Eastman was known for his skill on the piano and his vocal prowess (even earning himself a Grammy nomination for his part in the Peter Maxwell Davies opera Eight Songs for a Mad King in 1974), but didn’t find satisfaction in the stuffy formalism of institutionalized music-so he pushed against every boundary that stood in his way. The composer and multi-instrumentalist receded from public view in the years leading up to his death in 1990, casting aside the trappings of downtown New York’s avant-garde scene for a nomadic life on the streets. That's fine, as long as Unjust Malaise is not ignored.There’s been a significant shift in momentum behind the evolving legacy of Julius Eastman as of late. With any luck, Unjust Malaise will make Eastman's case, although it will almost certainly be controversial and elicit any number of conflicting opinions as to its relative value. One wonders where the audience is to cultivate for this kind of material - Eastman's choice of titles, his disdain of tradition, and lack of gloss might well discourage many listeners who would normally embrace and accept his work out of hand. Kyle Gann's impassioned notes are well worth reading also, and set the stage for more installments of Eastman's recordings. The most stunningly beautiful work here is The Holy Presence of Joan d'Arc (1981), performed by an ensemble of 10 cellos, but all of Eastman's pieces are gloriously messy, highly personal statements that are nonetheless completely original. Not only is it a sendup of serial technique, with the chromatic scale rising from bottom to top, it also seems to take off Louis Armstrong's obligatory habit of rising to the top note of his trumpet at the end of many pieces he played. The weakest piece (not by much) has the best title, If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich? (1978). Stay On It (1973) is an obvious early masterwork of minimalism and one cannot imagine what prevented this title from being issued on LP at the time. Eastman is lucky that the university recording engineers who captured these pieces did such an excellent job in recording them - this was the exception, not the rule, when open reel tape was king at institutions of learning. Eastman also sidesteps one's preconceived notions about what a black classical composer is about, as although improvisation is central to his art, there is nothing whatsoever "jazzy" about his work, though sometimes it evokes ideas common to gospel and other folk forms. Eastman was an early minimalist, drawing inspiration from Terry Riley's In C as a formal jumping off point, but diverging from the standards of the era in almost every other way. Unjust Malaise is a three-disc set made up of seven pieces, all rather long, and a monologue delivered by Eastman, rescued by producer Mary Jane Leach from university-made tapes of concerts and a privately made tape from the Third Street Music School Settlement. ![]() He didn't make it easy for anyone to grasp, perform, or to conserve his music, and to savor the challenge of Unjust Malaise one must be prepared to meet Eastman at least halfway, to accept his anger and to forgive his carelessness in certain respects. Eastman's blackness, combined with his uncompromising, difficult career choices, politically incorrect subject material, and vulnerability in the age of Jesse Helms are all reasons why New World Records' Julius Eastman: Unjust Malaise marks the very first inkling we've had on disc of what an unbelievable talent Eastman was, and the nature of his singular contribution to American classical music. The fact that Eastman's face is the only black one in these photos seems not to have impacted the attitude of his colleagues, any more than Oliveros or Renée Levine, then director of the University at Buffalo's Center of the Creative and Performing Arts, presence as the only women in these images might suggest. The booklet to New World Records' survey of Eastman's never-before-issued compositions contains a number of group shots showing Eastman in the presence of such luminaries as Lukas Foss, Lejaren Hiller, Pauline Oliveros, Jan Williams, Eberhard Blum, David Del Tredici, Morton Feldman, and other first-tier proponents of contemporary music of that time. ![]() Julius Eastman (1940-1990) was a composer in good company around 1970.
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