Flotation Device 2024-02-18 - Frith, Sorabji, Anthony Davis

Flotation Device previews the touring production of Anthony Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X. We examine its musical sources (including Davis’s contemporaneous Epistēmē band), its position in opera history, and its new revised version captured in a recording by Odyssey Opera. We also celebrate the 75th birthday of Fred Frith with a Henry Cow recording supplied by our 50 years ago in the avant-garde department, comparing it with contemporaneous tracks by soprano sax reviver Steve Lacy, scat singing liberator Jeanne Lee, and even Jethro Tull, via an oddity that languished in the vaults for three decades before its unveiling in 2002. Also enduring a long oblivion was Opus Clavicembalisticum, the 4½ hour piano tome by the recalcitrant English Parsi composer Kaikhosru Sorabji, who imposed a 46 year performance ban on it. We sample 30 minutes from Daan Vandewalle’s new recording of the complete piece, enough for you to decide whether it’s the work of a genius or a crank.