“However, common sense occasionally kicks in and we recognise that certain ideas cannot be brought to certain audiences. ‘We have brought some nudity to relatively unsuspecting jazz audiences and I have definitely recognised shock among some fraternities – but I feel more shocked by apathy, copycats and academic trendsters saturating what I believed to be potentially cutting-edge art forms’ I try not to dwell too much on potential audience reaction or perception for fear of losing sight of what we need to say. Nudity within our performances and visualisations have come about naturally in order to reflect ideas. “I understand that for many people the concept of nudity is outrageous but I am not seeking to shock anybody. “I don’t really recognise shock and scandal within jazz but perhaps that is due to my poor academic pedigree,” Ben said. After all, the music had some of its origins in the more colourful districts of New Orleans. Some might regard that as mirroring the risqué elements jazz has often courted. Having met Ben at that gig, it was a natural progression that a visual artist and a visual musician should combine forces.”Īll that said, it’s difficult to describe the precise nature of this collaboration, especially bearing in mind that Lucy adopts a “naked lifestyle”. Lucy added: “My experience of music, much like my mode of expression, has always been visual. “So the fusion of jazz and art was second nature and the beginning of a wider creative statement,” he said. Ben lived near Tenby at the time, so to know that it was possible to reflect in the sound and phrases of his trumpet playing the visualisation of the place he most loved was revealing and the beginning of a creative crusade to express the widest spectrum of multi-sensory thoughts and ideas. When he heard Miles Davis for the first time, the clear tone and reflective phrasing conjured images of the sea. Lucy’s sister, also an artist, has contributed too.īen said the decision to fuse jazz and art was personal. Elly Raine, also Welsh, joined the team and often delivers Welsh-language spoken words.
They instantly found creative common ground, formed Thomas & Muse, and in a few weeks were giving cross-genre performances live. The two met at a gig when Ben was playing and Lucy was sketching the musicians. Perhaps the means by which they deliver all this to their audiences – via both social media and live performance – says something about the way jazz is being absorbed and sent on its way in new, often brighter, livery. To these can be added the hybrid performances of Thomas & Muse, the Wales-based duo of trumpeter Ben Thomas and the artist Lucy Muse, whose collaborative creations embrace jazz, visual art and the theatrical. (i) Alan Krell, Manet, Thames & Hudson, pp.Pure jazz, if there is such a thing, has often entered into marriages with other art forms: jazz & symphonic strings, jazz & rock electronics, jazz & dance, jazz & poetry. Kelley Swain, author of The Naked Muse (Valley Press) Did Mme Manet respond? Why don't historians acknowledge whether or not there was a reply? Because, one is tempted to conclude, Victorine only matters in light of Manet, not for herself – turning her into a Venus after all. The appeal for funds is often cited in books of art history, but the next sentence always moves on to something else. Manet took a lot of interest in me and often said that if he sold his paintings he would reserve some reward for me… Certainly I had decided never to bother you and remind you of that promise, but misfortune has befallen me: I can no longer model, I have to take care of my old mother all alone… and on top of all this I had an accident and injured my right hand… it is this desperate situation, Madame, which prompts me to remind you of M. 'No doubt you know that I posed for a great many of his paintings, notably for Olympia, his masterpiece. She wrote to Manet's widow in 1888, six years after the painter died, when the model would have been 44: This latter painting, showing a hungry girl with dark shadows around her eyes, could be interpreted as tragically prescient – Meurent was often cited as having fallen into poverty and alcoholism, now a strongly contested point. In Street Singer (c.1862) Meurent poses as woman on the fringes of society, provocatively eating ripe cherries as she holds a guitar. Édouard Manet (1832–1883) The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)
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