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JOHNSTON'S TRANSPARENT QUARTET 2X
The Transparent Quartet - Phillip Johnston (saxes), Joe Ruddick (baritone), Mark Josefsberg (vibes), Dave Hofstra (bass) - performs twice in the area. On Sat, Jan 23, at 4 pm (!!), in the Griffith Film Theatre (Duke), they will perform Phillip's composition for Teinosuke Kinugasa's silent film "Page of Madness". Tickets for that are $10, $5 students. Then on Sun, Jan 24, at 9 pm, at Go! Rehearsal Studios (Carrboro), there will be a "regular" TQ performance. Tickets are $6. Cellist Chris Eubank and oboist Carrie Shull will play a short opening set (we hope). The film work is sponsored by the Duke Program in Film & Video and the Duke Institute of the Arts. The Go! show is Go! and AIM.
Described by one writer as "the H.G. Wells of the jazz world", Phillip Johnston has been active for nearly 20 years, as a leader of several New York 'downtown' ensembles, including the Microscopic Septet ("New York's most famous totally unknown band"), Big Trouble, and, most recently, the Transparent Quartet. Additionally, he has written music for TV, radio, dance and theatre productions, and over a dozen films, silent and otherwise. While he has played his Steve Lacy-influenced soprano sax with such musicians as Eugene Chadbourne, the ROVA sax quartet, and Butch Morris, and has employed, at various points, the likes of Wayne Horvitz, Bobby Previte, Dave Douglas, and John Zorn (the original alto player for the Microscopic 7tet back in the early 80s), Johnston has remained largely unknown to those who have not had the pleasure of hearing his instantly memorable, witty, and wide-ranging creations first hand. Whether it's the "Surrealistic Swing" of the otherwise unclassifiable Micros, or the more laid- back, 'uncool school' stylings of the Transparent Quartet, Johnston's music is marked by a rare ability to combine avant-garde innovations with a genuine feel-good atmosphere, thanks to a sharp sense of humor and a knack for writing seemingly obvious, catchy tunes that always seem to wind up in strange and unpredictable places.
Phillip brings his Transparent Quartet (Mark Josefberg on vibes, Joe Ruddick on baritone and piano, David Hofstra on bass) to the Triangle for two different shows on back-to-back days. The first of these, an afternoon show in the Griffith Film Theater in the Bryan Center on the Duke campus, is part of the Duke Film & Video Program's conference, "Sound Is Overlooked: History, Technology and Aesthetics of Music and Sound in Motion Pictures." The Quartet will perform Johnston's original music for Teinosuke Kinugasa's silent film "Page of Madness", which "follows an elderly man who works at odd jobs in a lunatic asylum where his wife is confined, having drowned her son in a fit of madness many years earlier." Johnston says: "While my other silent film scores have all been virtually completely notated and painstakingly coordinated with the film, this one explores more deeply a combination of written material and structured improvisation by the accompanying musicians (some of whom have been playing with me for over 20 years.)" To my knowledge, this will be the first performance of this currently unrecorded music outside of New York and, as you are probably aware, this type of thing doesn't pass through the area too often, so plan accordingly.
The following night the TQ will be at Carrboro's Go! Rehearsal Studios, in a show co-sponsored by AIM. Its likely to feature music from the group's fine debut release "The Needless Kiss" (Koch Jazz), along with other pieces from their wide-ranging repertoire, which includes arrangements of tunes by Mingus, Lacy, Chopin, and Raymond Scott. Other than that, I don't know what to say except it should be a great way to spend a Sunday night, and with two shows in two towns, you have no excuse not to make it to (at least) one!
--William York
(from l to r) Phillip Johnston, Joe Ruddick, Mark Josefsberg, David Hofstra.
Phillip Johnston's 'Home Page of Madness' : http://home.earthlink.net/~philjohnston
Photo credit: Viki Rutch