Philip Bither

This is the first in-depth publication to investigate the practice of pianist, composer and visual artist Jason Moran, whose work bridges the fields of visual arts and performing arts. As a “torchbearer for jazz,” Moran challenges traditional forms of musical composition; his experimental works merge object and sound, underscoring the theatricality of both mediums. Moran—who often collaborates with prominent visual artists such Joan Jonas, Stan Douglas, Lorna Simpson and Glenn Ligon—pushes beyond the conventions of sculpture and the concert stage while continuing to embrace the essential tenets of jazz and improvisation.

This volume, published in conjunction with the Walker Art Center’s 2018 exhibition, considers the artist’s practice and his collaborative works as interdisciplinary investigations that further the fields of experimental jazz and visual art. It features essays by curators, artists, musicians and art historians, plus an interview and photo essay by Moran. These are supplemented by sections documenting the creation of Moran’s mixed-media “set sculptures” including STAGED: Savoy Ballroom 1, STAGED: Three Deuces (both 2015) and STAGED: Slugs (2018). This is an essential volume for anyone interested in the intersection of contemporary art and music.

Jason Moran was born in Houston, Texas, in 1975, and received a BM from the Manhattan School of Music in 1997. He joined the faculty of the New England Conservatory in 2010. In 2014, was named artistic director for jazz at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. He was a 2015 Grammy nominee for Best Jazz Instrumental Album for ALL RISE: A Joyful Elegy for Fats Waller, and he composed his first feature film score for Selma (2014), directed by Ava DuVernay.

Renowned as both choreographer and dancer, Merce Cunningham (1919–2009) also revolutionized dance through his partnerships with the many artists who created costumes, lighting, films and videos, and décor and sound for his choreographic works. Cunningham, together with partner John Cage, invited those artists to help him rethink what dance could mean, both on the stage and in site-responsive contexts. His notion that movement, sound and visual art could share a “common time” remains one of the most radical aesthetic models of the 20th century and yielded extraordinary works by dozens of artists and composers, including Charles Atlas, John Cage, Morris Graves, Jasper Johns, Rei Kawakubo, Robert Morris, Gordon Mumma, Bruce Nauman, Ernesto Neto, Pauline Oliveros, Nam June Paik, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, David Tudor, Stan VanDerBeek, Andy Warhol and La Monte Young, among many others. These collaborations bring to the fore Cunningham’s direct impact upon postwar artistic practice.

This 456-page volume, published in conjunction with the Walker Art Center and MCA Chicago’s exhibition, reconsiders the choreographer and his collaborators as an extraordinarily generative interdisciplinary network that preceded and predicted dramatic shifts in performance, including the development of site-specific dance, the use of technology as a choreographic tool and the radical separation of sound and movement in dance. It features ten new essays by curators and historians, as well as interviews with contemporary choreographers—Beth Gill, Maria Hassabi, Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener—who address Cunningham’s continued influence. These are supplemented by rarely published archival photographs, reprints of texts by Cunningham, Cage and other key dancers, artists and scholars, several appendices and an extensive illustrated chronology placing Cunningham’s activities and those of his collaborators in the context of the 20th century, particularly the expanded arts scene of the 1960s and 1970s. This book is an essential volume for anyone interested in contemporary art, music and dance.