05.04.24 Darius Jones fLuXkit Sextet with Yuniya Edi Kwon – Violin, Ledah Finck – Violin, Christopher Hoffman – Cello, Chris Lightcap – Bass, Ches Smith – Drums and Darius Jones – Alto Sax and Composition. For the Bang On A Can Long Play Festival. At Roulette in downtown Brooklyn
thinking about artist Archie and Frenchie both pulling random fluxus/grapefruit prompts and doing them together. Then it becoming a weekly Revenge artist exercise.
Fluxus (experimental art movement) and Grapefruit (book by Yoko Ono that embodied Fluxus) - basically ‘event scores’ or prompts for (often) performance art. They were often absurd, often ephemeral or esoteric or inevitable. Examples:
(tape piece iii and walking piece from Grapefruit by Yoko Ono
George Brecht. Games and Puzzles (Name Kit) from Fluxkit. 1965, Fluxus Edition announced 1965
Page from Fluxus 1, containing ‘Flux Napkin’. 1964, Fluxus Edition announced 1966)
(God I’m crying reading Grapefruit now. Being a pisces is hard work but someone’s gotta do it [PDF])
but anyway I can perfectly imagine Archie’s smile and laugh and body language while they do some of the sillier prompts, and Frenchie’s little smirk. It’s the smirk of pyramid scheme and authentic planks. The events that ask for silence, they do with permanent little smiles channeling the silliest and most earnest intentionality that you can’t NOT look at it and not be soppy about it.
Fluxus isn’t just prompts or events, it’s a whole movement. It’s about accessibility of art, it’s about making art constantly, it’s about being anti-art, it’s about subverting the capitalist ideas of art. But to me it’s a beautiful exercise in opening yourself to the vastness of art. Everything is and can be art, from the sound of silence to the crushing of stones to the using of a napkin to taking a walk with someone. It’s down to intention, it’s down to openness, It’s down to earnestness and curiosity. It’s down to being receptive and most importantly PLAYFULNESS. It’s about letting art be low stakes and letting art into every moment of your life. It’s about embodying art.
Plus, Izzy would love this bc that sub loves to follow a direction. Man is lost in subspace watching the stars and turning on and off his headlights and walking in someone else’s footsteps.
(If all of those examples sounded insane and esoteric, here are more links to Fluxus things. First publication (poetry! Music! Vehicles! John Cage! Yoko Ono! Nam June Paik!) ‘An Anthology of Chance Operations’, and archive of fluxus artbooks: fluxus 1, fluxkit, and flux year box 2)
Even more emotional thinking abt how in college, in his really intense performance art and physical exertion phase, Izzy loved Fluxus and the idea of art being that and following directions and experiencing something new from it.
Then he gets to know the crew eventually, And finds out they do this. And oh, he’s taken aback. Launched back to being 19, to grieving his sister and transitioning and experiencing lack of bodily autonomy and finding refuge in performance art. And fondness bubbles up so hot and acrid he has to step outside. After that he’s part of the weekly events. He and the crew relish the events that take the most time, like the walking piece. The crew is fascinated by his earnestness and tenacity when so often before they only saw perfection and persnicketiness.
Darius Jones - fLuXkit Vancouver (i̶t̶s suite but sacred)
A radiant manifesto of artistic freedom, fLuXkit Vancouver (i̶t̶s suite but sacred) brings together a composition in four movements written and performed by Jones on alto saxophone, long-time collaborator Gerald Cleaver on drums, and four Vancouver-based string musicians: violinists Jesse Zubot and Josh Zubot, cellist Peggy Lee and bassist James Meger; with original artwork by Stan Douglas and liner notes by poet Harmony Holiday.
Commissioned by Western Front, an artist-run center for multidisciplinary experimentation and the historic home of the avant-garde in Vancouver, Jones drew inspiration from Western Front’s art is life ethos and its legacy of exchange with creative musicians such as George Lewis and Ornette Coleman. Composed across a series of residencies beginning in 2019 and recorded in June 2022 at Western Front’s iconic Grand Luxe Hall, fLuXkit Vancouver (i̶t̶s suite but sacred) is the first collaborative release with Brooklyn-based Northern Spy and Helsinki-based We Jazz Records.
For Fluxus artists, art can exist anywhere. This can take the physical form of a fluxkit, a collection of artworks and everyday objects placed in a small container or box. By challenging definitions and pushing artistic boundaries, anyone who opens a fluxkit can experience an art event. Jones presents us with a fluxkit that we want to reopen again and again.
The cover art for fLuXkit Vancouver was contributed by internationally acclaimed Vancouver-based artist Stan Douglas. Part of Douglas’ DCT series (2016 - ongoing), Occ6 is a brightly colored abstraction created through manipulating frequencies, amplitudes, and color values at the point in the digitization process where a photographic image is only represented by code. Occ6 mesmerizes and in turn offers a visual language that is untethered from conventional notions of the art form. “Stan found this world inside of a machine. Is this a photo?” Jones asks. “Is it a painting? What am I looking at? Maybe something that doesn’t exist anywhere else.”
The music of fLuXkit Vancouver also exists in between worlds: Is this a compositional suite? Is it sacred music? Or is it simply art? Jones’ score includes visual components — a 25 unique graphics key for extended technique on strings — alongside standard musical notation.
Darius Jones: Alto Sax and Composition
Jesse Zubot: Violin
Josh Zubot: Violin
Peggy Lee: Cello
James Meger: Bass
Gerald Cleaver: Drums
Produced by Darius Jones
Todos os concertos marcados para 2024 em Portugal #ÚltimasNotícias #lisboa
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If you like your jazz experimental, expressive and expansive, look no further. fLuXkit Vancouver (i̶t̶s suite but sacred) is a radiant manifesto of artistic freedom, showcasing the brilliant talents of Darius Jones on alto saxophone.