Jackson Pollock by Miltos Manetas

The drip paintings of Jackson Pollock, trailblazing Abstract Expressionist, appear to be the polar opposite of Thomas Hart Benton's highly figurative Americana. Yet the two men had a close and highly charged relationship dating from Pollock's days as a student under Benton. Pollock's first and only formal training came from Benton, and the older man soon became a surrogate father to Pollock. In true Oedipal fashion, Pollock even fell in love with Benton's wife.

Bloom’s experiment is in fact much bolder and intellectually profound than it may first appear. Certainly, many musicians throughout time have approached sculpture, writing, and painting for inspiration, and vice versa. But what Bloom has done is significantly different because Pollack consistently identified jazz methodologies with his work. In some ways, then, what Bloom has attempted is a translation into sound of Pollack’s transmutation of sound into color and movement. The result is a series of dense, explorative compositions, the faultless execution of which delineates the thoroughly progressive and acutely perspicacious nature of Bloom’s writing.