We visited acclaimed jazz pianist and composer Jason Moran at his home in Harlem to talk with him about artist Joan Jonas’ earliest performance works, “Songdelay” (1973). Filmed with a cast of performers in downtown New York near the Hudson River, the work explores how sound travels and can be distorted. To Moran, it presents many ideas of what songs can be.
Moran and Jonas are almost like family, with close to twenty years of collaborative experience. While performing on his piano at home, he reflects on how their musical kinship has impacted his work’s purpose.
“Joan is like everything to me,” he says. “Joan listens to your stories and then she tells them back to you in another way. My role is to reflect the world that you don’t get to see, and if I get a chance to show it to you through sound, then maybe you’ll understand it a little better.”
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The comments and opinions expressed in this video are those of the speaker alone, and do not represent the views of The Museum of Modern Art, its personnel, or any artist.
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