Columbia University Alum and former WKCR radio host/writer Brooke Wentz recently published Transfigured New York: Interviews with Experimental Artists and Musicians, 1980-1990 on Columbia Press.
Transfigured New York features transcripts of 40 conversations originally broadcast on Columbia University’s radio station, WKCR. The book includes a very influential and important selection of artists and musicians including John Cage, La Monte Young, David Behrman, Alvin Curran, Otto Luening, Roger Reynolds, Morton Subotnick, Vladimir Ussachevsky, Anthony Davis, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Glenn Branca, Fred Frith, Wayne Horvitz, Laurie Anderson, Joan La Barbara, Andrew Cyrille, Bill Frisell, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Evan Parker, Living Colour (Vernon Reid), Peter Gordon and Arthur Russell, John Lurie, Andy Partridge, Baaba Maal, Astor Piazolla, Ravi Shankar, Eric Bogosian, Margaret Leng Tan and others.
The book also features short quotes and recollections from Jim Staley and David Weinstein of Roulette, Joe Bowie, Zeena Parkins, David Soldier, Ikue Mori, Pheeroan akLaff, Cyro Baptista, Robert Longo, Gerry Hemingway, Yale Evelev, Tim Berne, Christian Marclay, Melvin Gibbs, Ned Rothenberg, Graham Haynes, Brandon Ross, Don Byron, Ben Neill, Vincent Chancey, David Moss, Ned Sublette, Rhys Chatham, Craig Harris, Meredith Monk, Fast Foward and more.
Lee Ranaldo provided an intro to the book. It also features a wealth of archival photos. This collection illuminates an extraordinary period in New York’s downtown creative community where adventurous artists and alternative spaces (like Roulette) hosted a revolution that exploded genres, pushed technology, defied traditions, and re-imagined collaboration.
