Phillip Johnston
Page Of Madness
(Asynchronous Records)
Phillip Johnston is nowadays mostly known for the work of two line-ups of which
he is a co-leader: the bizarre and quite original band called The Microscopic
Septet, whose career started a long time ago; and the more recently established
Fast 'N' Bulbous, a group that has formulated a personal version of the
highly individual Beefheartian canon.
Strange but true, the only time I had the chance to catch Johnston on stage
was thanks to one of those nights when a newly composed score to an old
silent movie is performed live - an occupation that is just a part of his
role as composer of scores for movies and theatre. On that night, the Johnston-led
Transparent Quartet (featuring Joe Ruddick on piano, Mark Josefsberg on
vibraphone, David Hofstra on double bass, and Johnston himself on soprano
and alto saxophone) played a live score to eight shorts by George Méliès.
Quite paradoxically, this kind of concert is exactly the type of thing that
I strongly dislike. Maybe it's because I developed myopia at an early age,
I really hate the "out of focus" look that's so typical of most
movies from the silent age. Maybe it's because, far from being the main
element, the visual part acts for me as an annoying distraction when it
comes to the goal of appreciating the music (which is obviously not a mere "complement" -
would we feel the same interest were the music composed/performed by The
Johnny Somebody Quartet?). Last but definitely not least, the practice
of having a group of improvisers playing to a silent movie hoping for a
miracle - totally understandable when it comes to issues concerning money
- which was quite common in the not so distant past, has left a disturbing
aftertaste in my mouth.
So it was with great surprise that (with the minor exception of a giant headache
as the logical consequence of the "out of focus old age look" of
the shorts) my experience from that night proved to be for the most part
a very positive one. It occurred to me that the bones in Johnston's neck
were in excellent conditions, permitting him to rapidly watch the screen,
and the score, while also cueing his musicians (and also keeping an eye
on a stop-watch?). I was pleasantly surprised when I was given the possibility
to listen to a few compositions as stand-alone pieces, performed while
the next short was being prepared; it's with great pleasure that I remember
two of them: Hofstra's Dilemma and The Needless Kiss, both featured on
the fine album by The Transparent Quartet that gets its title from the
latter tune.
The
CD titled Page Of Madness feature the original score written by Johnston
for Teinosuke Kinugasa’s Japanese 1926 silent film titled Kurutta Ippeiji,
or A Page Of Madness.
The
meager booklet tells us that the performance featured here was recorded
(very clearly, by Jon Rosenberg) in 1998. There's a very interesting page,
full of interesting considerations about scoring for silent movies in general,
and for this one in particular, on Johnston's website. About the CD it
says that "For several years I tried to get a release for this recording,
but after being rejected (or ignored) by 37 record companies (...), after
ten years, I have decided to do a very modest limited release myself on
my own Asynchronous Records".
(But
wait, there's still hope: the score was performed at the 2008 Sydney Film
Festival, with Chris Abrahams on piano, Daryl Pratt on vibraphone, and
Lloyd Swanton on bass.)
The
approach chosen by Johnston for his score to A Page Of Madness has a combination
of written music and improvisation, strictly related to the images on the
screen. All featured musicians used synchronized stop watches. The music
featured on this CD comes from a single performance, the only cuts were
of some long silent passages, when regarded as being too long in a home
listening dimension, I think.
After
listening to this album for quite a few times in the course of two weeks,
I think I'm not wrong when I say that the music featured on Page Of Madness
is really excellent. This is not a CD that's easy to "get", but
this is not due to the music being especially spiky or extremely complex;
really, it's the "long" time dimension of the tale being told
- seventy-seven minutes, and they are quite dense - that requires one's
undivided attention and a quiet room (both not so easy to get, these days...).
The music is quite varied, with many familiar "styles" showing
up here and there (echoes of Steve Lacy, a few "cool jazz" moods,
even a touch of
"free" when Joe Ruddick's baritone sax plays against Johnston's
soprano; while Mark Josefsberg's vibraphone sometimes reminded me, at least
superficially, of Earl Griffith's on Looking Ahead! by Cecil Taylor).
The
conceptual continuity of the story becomes apparent after a few spins,
while one easily gets some recurring traits, such as a piano passage. There's
a nice "classic"
theme - at 3' 26" of Prelude, then on Parting The Waters, again on The
Masks, also at 2' 20" of the closing track, At Peace With A Mop - but
every time we encounter it, something has changed. Johnston is good at matching
timbres, also the foreground/background elements, while paying the right
amount of attention to "weights".
It's
not my intention to attempt a useless moment-by-moment description, I'll
just indicate a few of my favourite moments. The above-mentioned Prelude
opens with trills, gruppettos, arpeggios, until we listen to the "main
theme" for the first time. The Mad Wife has a "cool jazz" start
for double bass and soprano sax, a recurring piano phrase, then double
bass and sax playing an inspired duo. The Visit opens with an ostinato,
mid-tempo, instruments coming in one by one, then the whole quartet moves,
along independent but coordinated lines, then it's back to the opening
ostinato. Alto sax, vibes, double bass on The Asylum, which toward the
end has the piano sounding like a musical box, coupled to a "fat-sounding" double
bass. Parting The Waters has the main theme again. Jerky and dissonant,
tense, with the alto, and the piano rumbling all over the keyboard, almost
à la Cecil Taylor, There's A Riot Goin' On.
Home
Life has a nice compositional touch, alternating a theme for alto and piano,
and a different one for vibraphone and double bass, it's a very elegant,
classy move. Home Life Ruined has the instruments chasing one another,
and a
"cut" close. Escape Attempt has a "suspended" beginning,
double bass played arco, dueling soprano and baritone; nice intermezzo by
vibraphone/double bass, and soprano/baritone; the mood getting tenser and
tenser. The Dream opens with a piano arpeggio, a motif for solo vibraphone,
soprano sax in counterpoint; at 3' 56" we have a nice melodic theme
played on alto sax. Nice thematic development on The Masks. At Peace With
A Mop starts with a "cool" theme for soprano, classic "comping" by
the rhythm section, a fine solo by vibraphone, then it's the "cool" theme
again; then, at 2' 20", for the last time, it's the sad theme that by
now we've learned to recognize, and love.
Beppe Colli
© Beppe Colli 2009
CloudsandClocks.net | May 19, 2009
