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A rare interview with composer/vocalist Julius Eastman, plus a solo vocal performance by Eastman not heard since 1984.
Eastman was a vivid, completely unique musician who died homeless in 1990. As a gay African-American, he brought a different perspective to experimental music. His philosophical, religious, musical, and sensual passions led him far from the mainstream, and the legacy of his music was lost, ignored, and forgotten for years after his early death. More recently, a new awareness of Eastman’s music has arisen, and the world seems finally ready now to appreciate his work.
David Garland’s 1984 interview with Eastman is apparently one of the few recorded interviews Eastman did, and it’s unforgettable. Also, illuminating Eastman’s new influence on young composers today, David speaks with Jace Clayton, aka DJ Rupture, about his “Julius Eastman Memory Depot.”
Explore
- Garland’s 1980 Ear Magazine review of Eastman‘s “Sacred Songs” performance
- poster for The Festival of Voices, 1984
- Mary Jane Leach’s Julius Eastman Project
- “Performing the Music of Julius Eastman,” a fifty-page pdf from the University of Buffalo Music Library
- Gay Guerrilla: Julius Eastman and His Music (Amazon), book edited by Renée Levine Packer and Mary Jane Leach
- album details, including liner notes, for Unjust Malaise, 3-cd set of Eastman’s music
- “Julius Eastman’s Guerrilla Minimalism,” by Alex Ross in The New Yorker
- “Minimalist Composer Julius Eastman, Dead for 26 Years, Crashes the Canon,” by Zachary Woolfe in the New York Times
- “Julius Eastman: the groundbreaking composer America almost forgot,” by Andrew Male in The Guardian
- jaceclayton.com
Photo of Julius Eastman from Ear Magazine archives; photographer unknown. Eastman’s likeness used by permission from the Julius Eastman estate / background image: Chris Garland