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Gay Guerrilla: Julius Eastman and His Music
A compelling portrait of composer-performer Julius Eastman's enigmatic and intriguing life and music.
Composer-performer Julius Eastman (1940-90) was an enigma, both comfortable and uncomfortable in the many worlds he black, white, gay, straight, classical music, disco, academia, and downtown New York. His music, insistent and straightforward, resists labels and seethes with a tension that resonates with musicians, scholars, and audiences today. Eastman's provocative titles, including Gay Guerrilla, Evil Nigger, Crazy Nigger, and others, assault us with his obsessions.
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. 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.
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. 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.
This Life of Evenings for New Music inBuffalo received an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for excellence. Mary Jane Leach is a composer and freelance writer, currently writing music and theatre criticism for the Albany Times-Union.
Composer-performer Julius Eastman (1940-90) was an enigma, both comfortable and uncomfortable in the many worlds he black, white, gay, straight, classical music, disco, academia, and downtown New York. His music, insistent and straightforward, resists labels and seethes with a tension that resonates with musicians, scholars, and audiences today. Eastman's provocative titles, including Gay Guerrilla, Evil Nigger, Crazy Nigger, and others, assault us with his obsessions.
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. 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.
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. 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.
This Life of Evenings for New Music inBuffalo received an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for excellence. Mary Jane Leach is a composer and freelance writer, currently writing music and theatre criticism for the Albany Times-Union.
284 pages, Hardcover
First published December 15, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 9, 2021
This book of essays about the composer Julius Eastman, whose music I love, covers a lot of ground despite its modest length. The biographical material gives a fairly thorough and vivid account of the man and his life, despite the fact that Eastman was somewhat elusive and hard to really know. The fact that so many of the authors had personal contact with Eastman makes this material especially compelling. The chapters that cover his music are very illuminating as regards the processes and structures in his work and have deepened my own listening to this music. It's all just as interesting as the music itself.
April 3, 2018
What an amazing person. Think it would be great to do a movie on him. Some of the essays pretty technical but music students might love that. My favorite essay was my Nemo Hill.
February 15, 2025
I first heard the piece Femenine on the WKCR in May. I was immediately mesmerized by the music and found it and other pieces by Julius Eastman. I can't think of a time when I've been so moved by an artist. My son gave me this book along with some CDs by Julius Eastman. I am so glad he did. Eastman was an interesting person to say the least, a polymath Gay Black man in a largely White musical world. While the book a collection of essays by various individuals who either knew Eastman or studied his music addresses his biography, the book is more a discussion of his music - where and when and with whom he played, the development of his composition, his music education, and analyses of his work. Despite not being a musician I was not overwhelmed by some of the technical aspects of some of the essays. Indeed it made me interested in learning more about music theory and musicology. I like the fact that the essays are well researched. The footnotes are quite enjoyable to read. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to diving more deeply into the music of Julius Eastman.
December 1, 2022
Really wonderful collection of essays on an artist I’m only passingly familiar with but whose work is resonating with me more and more. The musicological and historical pieces are the highlights here; the music theory sections are passingly interesting but a little dense. Understanding who Eastman was and how others remember him and his works are the real treat.
April 24, 2019
This guy was dope. It was a pleasure to learn about him and his life and work.
September 17, 2023
Julius Eastman (1940-1990) was a gifted composer, pianist, singer and dancer, active in the ‘modern’ American music scenes of the 1960s, 70s and 80s. He was also a black, gay provocateur whose latter life is shrouded in uncertainty.
Despite early critical acclaim and a 1975 Grammy nomination, by the time of Eastman’s death none of his compositions had been commercially released nor had any of his scores been published. While many of Eastman’s associates and contemporaries (e.g. Morton Feldman, Terry Riley, Pauline Oliveros) have achieved a degree of success that continues to the present day, Eastman died in obscurity (apparently destitute by that point) and his music became largely forgotten.
In 1998, the composer Mary Jane Leach began a search for the remnants of Eastman’s work, which resulted in the 2005 triple-CD release of Unjust Malaise - the first commercially available collection of Eastman’s music. Leach has also created an online archive of surviving musical scores and recordings, available on her website.
This collection of essays, compiled by two of Eastman’s close friends and colleagues, provides an enlightening overview of his life and work. Contributors include musical associates, performers, friends and lovers, and the picture that emerges is that of a brilliant but complex person.
The first essay here (written by Renée Levine Packer) serves as a biography of Eastman and comprises almost a third of the book. The second third is given to the other essays, some of which talk about his life, and some of which give critical appraisal of his work. A particular highlight is Chapter 3 “The Julius Eastman Parables”, written by his one-time lover R. Nemo Hill, where we are presented with the many varying aspects of Eastman’s character during their time together in New York City.
Although some of the chapters that appraise Eastman’s work in detail delve a little too deeply into the technical aspects of the compositions (including some fairly complex music theory), these nevertheless serve as excellent guides to the music and the quality of writing is consistently high through the book.
The final part of the book provides an exhaustive list from Leach of all known compositions, performances, recordings and extant scores by Eastman - evidently, many gaps exist and much is sadly lost.
In recent times, the work of Eastman has undergone something of a renaissance and his music has been performed and recorded by contemporary artists. Whilst he remains an ‘underground’ figure, Julius Eastman is finally getting some of the recognition he deserves, due in no small part to the tireless work of Leach with the release of Unjust Malaise, and this excellent book.
Despite early critical acclaim and a 1975 Grammy nomination, by the time of Eastman’s death none of his compositions had been commercially released nor had any of his scores been published. While many of Eastman’s associates and contemporaries (e.g. Morton Feldman, Terry Riley, Pauline Oliveros) have achieved a degree of success that continues to the present day, Eastman died in obscurity (apparently destitute by that point) and his music became largely forgotten.
In 1998, the composer Mary Jane Leach began a search for the remnants of Eastman’s work, which resulted in the 2005 triple-CD release of Unjust Malaise - the first commercially available collection of Eastman’s music. Leach has also created an online archive of surviving musical scores and recordings, available on her website.
This collection of essays, compiled by two of Eastman’s close friends and colleagues, provides an enlightening overview of his life and work. Contributors include musical associates, performers, friends and lovers, and the picture that emerges is that of a brilliant but complex person.
The first essay here (written by Renée Levine Packer) serves as a biography of Eastman and comprises almost a third of the book. The second third is given to the other essays, some of which talk about his life, and some of which give critical appraisal of his work. A particular highlight is Chapter 3 “The Julius Eastman Parables”, written by his one-time lover R. Nemo Hill, where we are presented with the many varying aspects of Eastman’s character during their time together in New York City.
Although some of the chapters that appraise Eastman’s work in detail delve a little too deeply into the technical aspects of the compositions (including some fairly complex music theory), these nevertheless serve as excellent guides to the music and the quality of writing is consistently high through the book.
The final part of the book provides an exhaustive list from Leach of all known compositions, performances, recordings and extant scores by Eastman - evidently, many gaps exist and much is sadly lost.
In recent times, the work of Eastman has undergone something of a renaissance and his music has been performed and recorded by contemporary artists. Whilst he remains an ‘underground’ figure, Julius Eastman is finally getting some of the recognition he deserves, due in no small part to the tireless work of Leach with the release of Unjust Malaise, and this excellent book.
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February 19, 2016780.92 G2853 2015
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews