In ncerts Manhattan and Brooklyn, artists explored the termglg of gay inty and mic.
Contents:
- FROM HARLEM TO ITALY, SOUNDS OF GAY SUBVERSN
- FATS WALLER - DON'T LET IT BOTHER YOU (OM THE RKO PICTURE "THE GAY DIVORCE") (REMASTERED) LYRICS
FROM HARLEM TO ITALY, SOUNDS OF GAY SUBVERSN
* fats waller gay *
AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTcric’s notebookIn ncerts Manhattan and Brooklyn, artists explored the termglg of gay inty and Fara Silver for The New York TimPublished Dec. But the words leapt off the stage durg an exuberant recent performance that opened a New York Ftival of Song program at Merk Concert Hall, “Ta’t Nobody’s Bs If I Do: Songs of Gay Harlem. Gays and lbians, pecially those drag, were routely persecuted by police and nmned om the pulps of neighborhood church.
Yet the creative valy of Harlem’s gay subculture reprented a fiant was a night to celebrate that subculture and brg to light some remarkable mic. Several of the songs performed have lyrics that imply ght oppose-sex relatnships, like Bsie Smh’s “It Mak My Love Come Down” — though the homosexual subtext would have been hard to miss when Smh sang .
” Here was a song om the unrground not jt revelg gay love but also suggtg the subtleti of to church by day and a club by night was mon for Harlem rints, as a verse the fal song on the program, Grager’s “Ta’t Nobody’s Bs If I Do” (performed by everyone) ma clear:If I go to church on SundayThen jt shimmy down on MondayTa’t nobody’s bs if I Moon for The New York TimA ncert a few days earlier, at Roulette Brooklyn, offered sight to another gay unrground: the one ntemporary classil mic that pervad the middle s of the 20th century. Bsotti has been alg wh gay them his piec and livg wh pneerg openns as a gay man sce the late to an artistic fay Florence, Mr.
FATS WALLER - DON'T LET IT BOTHER YOU (OM THE RKO PICTURE "THE GAY DIVORCE") (REMASTERED) LYRICS
Bsotti absorbed the techniqu of serialism and immersed himself Darmstadt’s avant-gar his flamboyant behavr disncerted many lleagu, pecially Boulez, who kept his own gayns closeted. Bsotti posed, the late 1950s, an dacly homoerotic song cycle and subsequent years created nt theatril works, cludg operas explorg gay allure and mic is not well known Ameri.
In this acunt, was a mercurial fantasy, rich wh flutterg cello bursts, alternately stentorian and whispered sung passag, sktish piano flights, and slidg riffs for electric was difficult to learn about the centraly of gay them Mr. Bsotti had been relegated back to some gay unrground.
More about Anthony TommasiA versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn C, Page 1 of the New York edn wh the headle: Gay Subversn, From Back the Day.