Frederic Rzewski - Coming Together/Attica

Frederic Rzewski

Coming Together/Attica by Frederic Rzewski is an incredibly powerful piece of music on a cassette which Bill Grove laid on me awhile ago. Bill tells me the composer's name is pronounced "JEFF-SKI".
Here's a review:
Coming Together/Attica/Moutons de Panurge [Opus One, 1973]
The design of "Coming Together" is simple, even minimal: Steve ben Israel reads and rereads one of Sam Melville's letters from Attica over a jazzy, repetitious vamp. Yet the result is political art as expressive and accessible as Guernica. In ben Israel's interpretation, Melville's prison years have made him both visionary and mad, and the torment of his incarceration is rendered more vivid by the nagging intensity of the music. The other side features a less inspiring political piece and a percussion composition, each likable but not compelling, but that's a cavil. "Coming Together" is amazing.A- Review by Robert Christau Dean of American Rock Critics

Christau isn't necessarily right...singling out Coming Together... I'm not sure what's on side 1 or 2 since this is a homemade cassette from Bill's personal collection. Attica itself is the stronger of the two spoken word pieces to my ears. Les Moutons I agree is not quite as special. ...a little Steve Reich revisited.. also on this cassette: a "Blue" Gene Tyranny/Robert Ashley "Sonata" and another "Blue" Gene Tyranny piece called "Timing" featuring "Phil Harmonic" on "voice" ...is this a psuedonym for Robert Ashley? There's a section where he's alternately saying Change.... Change Now.... that's very trippy. With a pulsing electric organ drone.