The fabulous print only mag YETI (issue 6) ran an article by downtown/disco lover Tim Lawrence (whose Arthur Russell book is set to blow this world up soon) on the neglected role of disco in the making of the "downtown" music scene. He rightly observes that this time period has been the subject of SOOO MANY books recently, including From Montmartre to the Mudd Club, No Wave (Both Marc M's and Thurston's books), New York Noise, and soon another two from esteemed music critic Will Hermes and philosopher Bernie Gendron.
What is missing? Lawrence argues that folks like Arthur Russell experienced the "crossover" so celebrated at the time as something going from the experimental/new music scenes to disco, not from classical to punk, as was the case with so many of his generation of fed up composers. Likewise, Ned Sublette was driven to his country roots and to salsa.
Which brings me to my story – A few weeks ago I asked Columbia U. ethnomusicology postdoc Alessandra Ciucci what brought her to NYC from her native Italy. To my surprise, she said...Defunkt! As an electric bass player in the Italian avant garde, she saw the New York band on tour and they encouraged her to move to the vibrant NYC music scene, so she picked up and left. For her as a bass player, funk was the challenge, and Defunkt was the band who set the bar, with Kim Clarke's tight, endless propulsion.
When Marc Masters wrote of James Chance, "Siegfried had studied jazz at a music conservatory, so he also infiltrated New York's loft-jazz scene" (Masters 2007:74), the scene he meant was Defunkt leader Joe Bowie's earlier band Human Arts Ensemble at the L.E.S. La Mama Theater. Later, Joe put together Chance's controversial "The Blacks" band for his 1980 Off White album. Masters refers to Chance's backup band simply as "Africans" whose racial authenticity made Chance's own race-oriented provocations all the more heated for shows during this time. The Africans Masters refers to became the legendary funk-jazz band Defunkt.
So why I never read about them in any of the No Wave/downtown books?
- James Chance, celebrated No Wave musician, subject of endless books, dire reunion shows, etc.
- Defunkt? A multiracial chops-based funk jazz ensemble founded in 1980 who jump started so many of the Black Rock Coalition bands? Not mentioned by Masters or Moore. Still going strong.
This is what Tim's Yeti article hinted has been left out of the full downtown story – it's what still needs to be written in. Why reinforce race-based genre boundaries that the very artists we're talking about were trying to complicate, challenge, or demolish? Seems like a conservative way to write music history.