NPR MUSIC: Julius Eastman, A Misunderstood Composer, Returns To The Light
NPR MUSIC: Julius Eastman, A Misunderstood Composer, Returns To The Light
BY TOM HUIZENGA
“It's only in recent years that friends and scholars have begun slowly shedding light on Eastman's music and the blurry details of his final, erratic years — and that a newer generation of musicians has given his work a fresh look. Among those is the Los Angeles-based ensemble Wild Up, which has just released a singularly jubilant performance of Eastman's 1974 work Femenine (pronounced feh-meh-NEEN), a mesmerizing 67-minute groove that unfolds one beautiful moment after another…Wild Up's new rendition of Femenine takes a page from Eastman's personal playbook: It's exuberant, a bit in your face, sometimes capricious, and always surprising. It's also just the first in a series of Eastman recordings the group is planning. What kind of performance practice will develop around his music, now that more musicians are taking it up, is thrilling to imagine.”