![]() Eastman’s provocative titles, Gay Guerrilla, Evil Nigger, Crazy Nigger, and others assault us with his obsessions. His music, insistent and straightforward, resists categorical labels but seethes with a tension that resonates with musicians, scholars, and audiences today. Julius Eastman lived in many worlds: black, white, gay, straight, classical music, jazz music, an academic world, a downtown New York disco world. Described as “compassionate and cleareyed” by Zachary Woolfe in the New York Times, her overview ranges from Eastman’s family roots, early years in Ithaca, student days at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, the Buffalo years as a member of Lukas Foss’s contemporary music group and as professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, through his New York years and death at age 49. Renée Levine Packer has written a 28,000-word biography on Julius Eastman, based on numerous interviews with members of Eastman’s family and friends, plus her own personal conversance with Eastman’s life from 1968 onward, bringing new material to light. This important volume of essays, brought forth by two brilliant women who have long championed Eastman’s music, belongs in every music conservatory library and beyond. Gay Guerrilla: Julius Eastman and His Music has arrived just in time for Black Lives Matter and gets my deepest praise. For those who are interested in iconoclasts of whatever stripe, this volume will be a revelation and an invitation to rethink what composition, performance, and life at the precipice of madness can be. The publication of this rigorously researched, lovingly produced, multidimensional study of a singular artist will surely be met with joy by those of us who remember Julius Eastman–the inspired creator, the sly provocateur and martyred saint of the avant-garde. ![]() ![]() Most of his compositions were once thought to be lost, but Leach has been collecting and disseminating the pieces for almost 20 years. An indication of his impact is the very fact that so many people have come together to remember him and are actively championing his music. who worked fluently in jazz, improvisation and acoustical experiments. “Gay Guerrilla” opens with an extended biographical essay, by Packer, that feels ready for adaptation as a harrowing indie film.” - Alex Ross, The New YorkerĪ fascinating new collection of essays exploring the life and work of the enigmatic composer Julius Eastman. Late last year, “Gay Guerrilla ,” a book of essays that takes its title from one of Eastman’s pummeling signature works, was published it includes the first substantial attempt to tell the story of his eventful, finally tragic life. Hilton Als, The Genius and the Tragedy of Julius Eastman: An overlooked composer’s work gets unearthed at the Kitchen (The New Yorker, 2018)Ĭrazy Nigger, Gay Guerrilla, Precious Artist: Julius Eastman Examined (New Music Buff, 2018) Mary Jane Leach is a composer and freelance writer, currently writing music and theatre criticism for the Albany Times-Union.Gay Guerrilla: Julius Eastman and His MusicĪ collection of biographical and musical essays, co-edited by Renée Levine Packer and Mary Jane Leach, was published by the University of Rochester Press, Eastman Studies in Music Series in December 2015.Īlex Ross, The Rest is Noise: Notable Music Books of 2015 This Life of Sounds: Evenings for New Music inBuffalo received an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for excellence. The book presents an authentic portrait of a notable American artist thatis compelling reading for the general reader as well as scholars interested in twentieth-century American music, American studies, gay rights, and civil rights. In addition to analyses of Eastman's music, the essays in Gay Guerrilla provide background on his remarkable life history and the era's social landscape. These episodes are examples of Eastman's persistence in pushing the limits of the acceptable in the highly charged arenas of sexual and civil rights. ![]() Eastman tested limits with his political aggressiveness, as reflected in legendary scandals like his June 1975 performance of John Cage's Song Books, which featured homoerotic interjections, and the uproar over his titles at Northwestern University. His music, insistent and straightforward, resists labels and seethes with a tension that resonates with musicians, scholars, and audiences today.Įastman's provocative titles, including Gay Guerrilla, Evil Nigger, Crazy Nigger, and others, assault us with his obsessions. Composer-performer Julius Eastman (1940-90) was an enigma, both comfortable and uncomfortable in the many worlds he inhabited: black, white, gay, straight, classical music, disco, academia, and downtown New York. A compelling portrait of composer-performer Julius Eastman's enigmatic and intriguing life and music. ![]()
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