SMCO with DA QWEEN & Arnaldo!: 'Stay On It' by Julius Eastman (on-demand until 9/1/2021)
Free
Arnaldo!, vocals
Julius Eastman – Stay On It
Recorded and produced in isolation, SMCO performs Stay On It, a radical piece written by Julius Eastman in 1973. The ensemble is joined by Seattle rapper and slam poet DA QWEEN of Everything and the singing drag artist Arnaldo! for this online video performance, available for free. Unapologetically queer and black, Eastman wrote music that seeks to discover and lift up these identities with riotous charisma and acerbic wit. Though Eastman died homeless in 1990 and most of his scores are lost, Stay On It and other pieces have been reconstructed from recorded performances. Accompanied by a poem by Eastman himself, Stay On It is a masterful work that combines minimalism and improvisation into an off-the-rails street party that defies classification. Is it a celebration of camp, a satire of minimalism, a sexually-tinged work of protest, or something else entirely?
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