“Unjust Malaise” by Julius Eastman

Cover of "Unjust Malaise" by Julius Eastman, via New World Records.

“Unjust Malaise” (2005) is a collection of songs by Julius Eastman, an openly gay Black classical artist. The album was released posthumously, and represents a series of recordings collected and compiled by other artists.

• Listen to “Unjust Malaise” on YouTube or Spotify >
• Listen to Un-forgetting Julius Eastman (BBC), curated by Elaine Mitchener, which includes both recordings and reflections of his legacy. >

About Julius Eastman

Julius Eastman (1940-1990) was an openly gay Black composer, singer, conductor, and pianist ahead of his time. His minimalist style was distinct for the classical music genre and provocative compared to his white contemporaries. Sadly, he died at the age of 49, homeless and alone in a Buffalo hospital. Much of his work was lost and his death was not reported for another eight months in the Village Voice. Nevertheless, his legacy is being repaired and further preserved by a number of dedicated artists. Some of his music has been compiled in “Unjust Malaise,” a posthumous album released in 2005 that features some of his most notable titles like “Stay on It,” “If You’re So Smart,” “Why Aren’t You Rich?”, “The Holy Presence of Joan D’Arc,” and “Gay Guerilla".

In an introduction he gave to his concert at Northwestern University, he explained the title of Gay Guerrilla, and revealed a central pillar of his ideology (Oxford University Press): "These names, either I glorify them or they glorify me. And in the case of guerrilla, that glorifies gay…A guerrilla is someone who in any case is sacrificing his life for a point of view. And you know if there is a cause, and if it is a great cause, those who belong to that cause, will sacrifice their blood because without blood there is no cause.”

What I am trying to achieve is to be what I am to the fullest. Black to the fullest, a musician to the fullest, a homosexual to the fullest.

In a retelling of her research pursuits, Mary Jane Leach, an artist and former collaborator of Eastman, shared that Julius began as a chorister and learned the piano at 14 – playing Beethoven within six months of lessons (Mary Jane Leach’s website). He studied at Ithaca College before transferring to the prestigious Curtis Music Institute in Philadelphia where he studied with Mieczysław Horszowski and composition with Constant Vauclain.

He sang in the 1973 recording of Eight Songs for a Mad King by the British composer Peter Maxwell Davies (Buffalo University). There, he caught the attention of composer-conductor Lukas Foss and soon joined SUNY Buffalo’s Center for the Creative and Performing Arts as a Creative Associate. He toured as a founding member of S.E.M Ensemble until he moved to New York City in the mid to late 70s. He performed in venues like Lincoln Center, The Kitchen, Brooklyn Academy of Music. In addition, he performed with the Count Basie Orchestra and Brooklyn’s Philharmonia’s Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) Orchestra, the latter where he ran an outreach program with composers of colors.

Eastman was evicted from his East Village apartment, and police officers threw all his belongings – including his recordings and scores – into the snow. After, Eastman experienced houselessness, and his health rapidly declined. Because of that, we may never know all that we lost of Eastman’s work. But we do know we risk a great deal when we do not care and protect Black artists as our cultural treasures.

The radical music collective Wild Up, based in Los Angeles, committed to " arranging, recording, and releasing" the work of Julius Eastman over the next six years. The first product, Femenine, is one of Eastman's classics, was released in June 2021, bringing Eastman's legacy back into the spotlight.

The loss of Eastman’s work and the efforts to commemorate his contributions to classical music are similar to the recent initiatives to revive the work of Florence Price (1887-1953). Florence was the first African American woman to have a symphony performed by an orchestra (William Grant Still was the first African American man) (Afrovoices). It was only in 2009 that “piles of musical manuscripts, books, personal papers, and other documents” were discovered in the dilapidated remnants of her summer home (New Yorker).

Reflection Questions

• Consider other art and music genres, like classical music, that predominantly celebrate white men. What marginalized voices may you be missing? Why do you think their work may be minimized in the greater canon?
• How can you be a better curator of the works of this decade for future generations? How can you step into the role of a curator to ensure we don't lose the works of these times?

Learn More

• The Radical Queerness of Julius Eastman (Vogue)
• Book: Gay Guerrilla: Julius Eastman and His Music Edited by Renée Levine Packer, Mary Jane Leach
• Julius Eastman Interview, Spinning on Air Podcast (1 hour 3 minutes) Recording of 1984 Interview
• WBUR Interview with Tiona Nekkia McClodden, co-curator of the archived exhibit "Julius Eastman: That Which Is Fundamental,"
• AfriClassical’s “Hidden No More”: Classical Music by Artists of African Descent