Blood Orange features on Wild Up’s third Julius Eastman record
thefader.comLos Angeles experimental ensemble Wild Up have announced their third record comprising works written by the late, legendary, composer, musician, vocalist, and performance artist Julius Eastman.
Julius Eastman Vol. 3: If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich is due out June 16 via New Amsterdam, and it’s lead single — an intense, 21-minute performance of one of Eastman’s most controversial pieces along with special guests Devonté Hynes (Blood Orange) and Adam Tendler — is out today (April 19). “Evil N—,” whose title is edited here against Eastman’s original intentions, is one link in a chain of compositions he wrote in the late 1970s with similarly confrontational names. “Now, there was, there was a little problem with the titles of the piece,” Eastman said, introducing the piece along with “Crazy N—” and “Gay Guerrilla” to an audience at Northwestern University in January 1980, during his residency at the school.
A radically experimental queer artist of color, Eastman was consistently misunderstood throughout his career, often forcing him to defend his art.
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