25 years of Silence
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Tom Johnson: It is often observed that Arnold Schoenberg completed no music during a period of about seven years, before launching his serial methods in 1923. Beethoven also passed through a long period of silence. But there is certainly no precedent for your case, Jim Burton, which went something like this.
You grew up in a railroad family in Wyoming, studied art at the University of
Wyoming, taught in an art department in North Carolina for a few years, then
went to New York City, where you began to play an important role in the
evolution of American minimal music in Lower Manhattan. You contributed some of
the most radical and significant innovations of this movement, attracted a good
deal of attention from both public and press, and then you left New York City.
You continued working as a musician in Woodstock and Buffalo for a couple of
years, but around 1980, some 25 years ago, you reluctantly gave up music
altogether, and went back to Wyoming.
Jim Burton: Yes, that's true. I found that I could no longer find
enough work to support myself and still have time for music. I returned to
Wyoming where I knew I could rely on family and friends to help me get back on
my feet. What started out as a short-term plan turned into a 25 year career in
construction and electrical inspecting. Then, in 1999, a construction accident
cost me my business and my livelihood. Fortunately, I was able to take my early
retirement option from Social Security in 2001. I suddenly realized that I no
longer had to work to stay alive and I started thinking about what I might want
to do with my time instead.T.J.: At this point you unearthed and began restoring some old audio tapes that were still packed away in a shed, were stimulated by these artifacts of your earlier life as a musician, and used the internet to reconnect with some of your old friends. I was one of these, and the email correspondence we have been having since the summer of 2002 has brought us back into contact. Now it is the summer of 2003, and you decided to make your first trip to Europe, and here we are in Paris, listening to old recordings in new CD formats, talking about old times, trying to figure out why you had to leave music, why you are now coming back to it, trying to understand the 25-year hiatus, and what you will be doing now.
J.B.: That's a lot to cover in the space of one article. But we can certainly
touch on some of those subjects.
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