The Growing Legacy of Arthur Russell

Arthur Russell could best be described as a 'sketchy genius.' Rather than working with focus on singular studies, Russell was a tireless, restless producer, churning out thousands of songs, often leaving them in forms of varying half-completion. Instead of mastering one dominion, Russell dabbled in different realms: pop, folk, dance, disco, minimalism, transcendental states. Not an old master who produced one defining magnum opus, Russell left behind, instead, innumerable sketches.

Yet, if Russell's a sketchy genius, that means he's still a genius. The cellist-turned-disco-don-turned-naked-songsmith was at full-flight, in New York, through the 1980s, before succumbing to AIDS-related complications in 1992. His 1986 album, World of Echo, and 1994's pitch-perfect posthumous collation Another Thought, show an artist working in a unique musical place; a collision point of fragile ballad, compositional minimalism, free-form improvisation, studio experimentalism, gay disco abandon, and rough-hewn pop-song.

In recent years, Russell has found fame far beyond anything he experienced whilst alive, his legacy growing through the influence he's had on acclaimed contemporary artists like Final Fantasy, Jens Lekman, Grizzly Bear, and Hercules and Love Affair.

Two newly-issued works —the DVD release of Matt Wolf's documentary motion-picture Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell, and a compilation of previously-unreleased country-ish recordings called Love is Overtaking Me— explore further Russell's unique contribution to music. Wolf's portrait, in particular, goes beyond Russell's records to try and uncover the individual responsible for this strange, singular output.

Photo © [Paul Weldman]