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There's a fascinating moment in Matt Wolf's moving portrait of Arthur Russell, avant-disco shamen and musical director of New York's experimental arts space The Kitchen, where his father rhetorically states to his AIDS-stricken son, "You're a good sport aren't you, Charlie." A decaying Russell questions the thought: "You think?" His father simply looks on lovingly and utters, "Yeah." Those were the last words they exchanged as Chuck Russell then proceeds to break down.
For all his complexity, Arthur Russell generated nothing but sincere feelings of warmth and love among family and friends. Undoubtedly a gifted musician of profound emotions, Russell, went from cornfield reverie in his hometown of Oskaloosa, Ohio, to studying Indian music with sarod player and vocalist Ali Akbar Khan, playing cello on an acoustic version of Talking Heads' 'Psycho Killer', colloborating with one-time neighbour Allen Ginsberg and fusing the experimental with dancefloor pop on records such classics as 'Go Bang' and 'In the Light of the Miracle'.
"Ahead of his time," maybe. "Of his own time," most definitely. Had AIDS not claimed Russell, who knows how far he could have gone with his songwriting mystique and his quivering, folksome tone.
But like all great artists, whether famous or aspiring, Russell had to sacrifice; occasionally straining personal relationships in his quest for the fullest realisation of himself. After all, that sense of not fitting in, of being born of another world, can be both empowering and frustrating.
And that is what Matt Wolf's film brings out so well. Featuring brilliant archive footage of Russell as well as poignant interview with Philip Glass, Ginsberg, producer Bob Blank, journalist David Toop and Russell's loyal partner Tom Lee among others, Wolf resists the desire to recount, ad nauseam, every intricate detail of the shy auteur of "Buddhist bubblegum", as Ginseberg put it. Or to trivialise his character amid a sea of expressionism. There are countless blogs out there for knowledge nuts. 'Wild Combination' delivers on the powerful, and infinitely more compelling proposition of… intimate insight.
'Wild Combination' is released on DVD by Plexifilm on 3 November. Also look out for Arthur's cello and voice recordings under the title 'Love Is Overtaking Me', out now on Rough Trade records.
(Amar Patel) |
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Words: Amar Patel
Pictures: Courtesy of Plexifilm |
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