Arthur Russell was a prolific cellist, avant garde musician and acclaimed disco producer who died tragically of AIDS in the early 1990's. Arthur Russell's unusual, yet dynamic life took him from the Midwest to Buddhist Monasteries in California to the NYC art scene. For part of Russell's career he was music director for the non-profit arts and music space, The Kitchen. Acts such as The Raincoats and The Beastie Boys have performed at the venue. Check out this song by The Raincoats recorded live at The Kitchen
Download the_raincoats_no_ones_little_girl.mp3.
Here is a great clip of the Beast Boys performing at The Kitchen in the Early 80's
Russell collaborated with artists such as Allen Ginsberg,Phillip Glass, Nicky Siano and David Byrne (check out David Byrne's blog). Early in his time in NYC, Russell started a band, The Flying Hearts with ex-Modern Lovers' bass player Ernie Brooks. Check out this track by the acclaimed Modern Lovers Download 315_pablo_picasso.m4a.
Here is a very small sample of Russell's work. As always Music Couture supports these artists as should you. You can find many of these mps's on Itunes, Emusic and Amazon.com
Download this_is_how_we_walk_on_the_moon_1.mp3
Download lets_go_swimming.mp3
Download 03_you_and_me_both.m4a
Music Couture recently interviewed documentarian Matt Wolf. Wolf's film about Arthur Russell, "WILD COMBINATION" , will be premiering at The Berlin International Film Festival on February 13th.
What was it about Arthur Russell that motivated you to make a documentary on his life?
When a friend of mind recommended Arthur’s music, he described a gay disco producer in a farmer’s plaid shirt listening to mixes of his own tapes on the Staten Island Ferry. That image got me intrigued. And then hearing Arthur’s music really sealed the deal. I became really obsessed with it. When I contacted Tom Lee, Arthur’s former partner, about making the film, I intended to just ask for permission to use music. But I was so inspired by Tom that I started considering a larger, biographically driven film. From there the project started to unfold.
Can you tell us about the process you went through in making the film.
Well it’s never easy to make a film about a gay cellist and disco producer from Oskaloosa, Iowa. The film took two years to make, which considering the scale of our operation, felt extremely fast. I work with a small crew (all of whom were working for free) and we were shooting material about once a month, all the while editing at my house. There was about 35 hours of footage, and we probably edited for a year, and an additional 6 months in earnest. And believe it or not, that’s actually a very small ratio of footage and a short editing period for a documentary.
What are some of the ideas and notions you had about Russell when you fist started working on the film that changed, developed and adapted throughout the course of this project?
I think I probably had more preconceptions about the mystique or legend of disco and Arthur’s role in it. In truth, disco was just another facet of Arthur’s complicated, rich, and layered body of work. And the disco scene, though unique in its utopian social structures, wasn’t necessarily where Arthur felt at home. I learned that Arthur was many thing to many different people, and I had to let go of any kind of fixed perspective.
Early in Russell's life he studied Indian music at Ali Akbar and lived at a Buddhist monastery, later he got involved with the NYC arts, disco and no wave scenes. This seems like a large transformation from one point of his life to the others. What do you think affected this change?
I think Arthur was open to all of these possibilities. Although he came from formal training and had an academic and fairly rigorous perspective on music and theory, he wanted to make popular music. At this moment in history, this was one of the central preoccupations of the avant-garde— to dissolve distinctions between “serious” music and more popular forms of entertainment. Arthur pushed those boundaries very aggressively.
Tell us a little bit about The Kitchen and also, Russell's involvement.
The Kitchen, which still exists today, was one of the important multi disciplinary arts spaces in downtown
New York, which showed performance (dance, experimental theater, performance art), video, and music. In the mid 1970s, Arthur was the Musical Director there. He challenged the definitions of “art” music there when he invited the rock band The Modern Lovers to perform. At the time in the 1970s, some people in the avant-garde couldn’t contextualize this kind of proto-punk music as art, though it seems logical now in retrospect. So Arthur was a vital member of that community and institution.
Tell us a little about The Flying Hearts.
The Flying Hearts was a folk/pop band that Arthur had with a few other musicians, including Ernie Brooks from the Modern Lovers. There music is going to be forthcoming on a record called “Love Is Overtaking Me” from Audika Records. One of their songs is a great collaboration between Arthur and Allen Ginsberg, which appears in the film.
How many people did you interview? Can you tell us a little bit about the interview process?
I interviewed about 16 people, 13 of which appear in the film. I like to conduct long conversational interviews. I’ll call somebody and “pre-interview” them, which is a normal, wandering kind of conversation. I’m taking notes and for the recorded interview, I’ll have talking points taken from those notes. But on camera I’ll conduct the interview as a separate conversation (no questions), making sure to direct the conversation organically to some of these talking points. These interviews last between 1 and 2 hours generally, and then I work with people to transcribe them.
All of the people you interviewed had a close personal relationship with Arthur Russell. How did your relationship with the subject change and adapt through the interview process?
I think the biggest transformation in me through the interview process is developing a sense of empathy for Arthur. How would he feel about all of this? How would he respond to the things being said about him and how can I choose to represent him? I wanted to try to put myself in his shoes and to make decisions that would be respectful to him. That being said, people had negative things to say about Arthur. But Arthur’s not here to defend himself. So I wanted to be as sensitive to that as possible.
Can you tell us about Russell's influences and artistic collaborations?
Arthur had many high profile collaborations, including Ginsberg, David Byrne, and Philip Glass. Glass and Ginsberg in particular I think really believed in Arthur and wanted him to succeed. Philip connected him with an opportunity to compose music for the avant-garde theater director Robert Wilson (Einstein on the Beachm, Civil WARs). As you’ll see in the film, that collaboration was a disaster. But I would say Arthur was at the center of a highly productive and vital artistic community. Many of the people he worked with went on to receive wider cultural recognition.
Can you tell us about Russell's relationship to the NYC arts scene and NYC night life?
Arthur’s life was about making music. I think going to clubs or concerts was almost like a research process for Arthur. He was always listening.
Much of Russell's work has been relegated to obscurity, why do you feel this happened?
I think the film will unravel some of the biographical reasons that Arthur died in obscurity. His biggest obstacle was finishing. Arthur was so engaged in the process often that delivering the goods sometimes came second. This made it harder for him to have a legacy after his death on definitive recordings of his work. But I think that’s changing now and Arthur is finding a new audience, since his music has been posthumously released.
What are your plans for the film?
Right now, we’re playing the film festival circuit and next year we hope to have distribution. Our World Premiere is coming up at the Berlin Film Festival next week. Keep visiting http://www.arthurrussellmovie.com for updates on North American, New York, UK, and other premieres in different cities around the world.
As reported by a recent article in the New York Times, University of Minnesota professor, Dr. P.Z. Myers was barred from a screening of "Expelled", a movie which is in the defense of "intelligent design". Myers and Dr. Richard Dawkin were both interviewed for the movie, at that point called "Crossroads" when they were told that the film was an exploration of science and religion. Dr. Dawkin, a leader in evolutionary biology was not barred from the film, some believe because producers did not realize who he was. 
