Julien Soro
(saxophones); Paul Jarret (guitar); Edouard Séro-Guillaume (bass); Stéphane
Scharlé (drums).
(Review by Steve H./Photos courtesy of Ken Drew)
Last month a packed St Gabriels Church in Heaton hosted the Buster
Keaton classic Steam Boat Bill Junior
with a live accompaniment from TV star and silent movie expert Neil Brand. It
was a fantastic evening as the movie is a classic and Brand is clearly a very accomplished
musician. My wife looked sceptical when on the way home I remarked how much
more I would have enjoyed it had the music been of the improvised jazz variety.
Well on Sunday at the Bridge Hotel I was granted my wish as this French
band produced a live performance to accompany Buster Keaton’s 3 Ages of Man. The film, Keaton’s first
full length feature as director, may not be
his finest but it is still very funny.
The film’s themes focus on man’s perennial attempts to win the girl from a love rival. Each segment of the courtship is shown in 3 different eras, Stone Age, Ancient Rome and 1920’s New York. All the thrills of a classic Keaton film are on show providing an inspirational backdrop for the band to improvise with.
My own favourite scene is when Buster has to take on his adversary in a chariot race in Ancient Rome so as to impress his prospective beau’s parents. As the race is about to start there is a snow storm so Buster replaces the wheels on his chariot with skis and the horses with huskies. All is going well until a conspirator of his rival lures the dogs away with the aid of a small kitten. Our hero captures the kitten attaches it to a stick which he then dangles in front of the huskies who in their frantic attempt to reach the kitten carry him to victory. All the action of the film was wonderfully augmented by the quartet who caught the relevant moods perfectly. At the conclusion of the film the near capacity crowd responded with rapturous applause.
The film’s themes focus on man’s perennial attempts to win the girl from a love rival. Each segment of the courtship is shown in 3 different eras, Stone Age, Ancient Rome and 1920’s New York. All the thrills of a classic Keaton film are on show providing an inspirational backdrop for the band to improvise with.
My own favourite scene is when Buster has to take on his adversary in a chariot race in Ancient Rome so as to impress his prospective beau’s parents. As the race is about to start there is a snow storm so Buster replaces the wheels on his chariot with skis and the horses with huskies. All is going well until a conspirator of his rival lures the dogs away with the aid of a small kitten. Our hero captures the kitten attaches it to a stick which he then dangles in front of the huskies who in their frantic attempt to reach the kitten carry him to victory. All the action of the film was wonderfully augmented by the quartet who caught the relevant moods perfectly. At the conclusion of the film the near capacity crowd responded with rapturous applause.
For the second set the quartet played a selection of their own
composition and what a treat it was. The band have known each other since
attending the conservatoire together in Strasbourg in 2001 and this was reflected in the wonderful
empathy they had with each other. The music was powerful, original, creative
and exhilarating. All 4 players were fabulous but there was a particular guitar
solo by Paul Jaret at the start of a piece that was best thing I have heard all
year. The response at the conclusion of the final piece was even more
enthusiastic than that given at the interval. Indeed certain members of the
audience could be overheard plotting the logistics of a trip to Berwick on
Friday night where the band will be performing at ‘The Maltings’.
All in all, a great start to Jazz North East’s monthly Sunday night
Splinter season.
Steve H.
2 comments :
Lovely review, Steve of a wonderful performance. A gig of two distinct halves - literally - and quite exhilarating all the way through. A fantastic start to the new season of jazz from Jazz North East
I agree entirely with Steve and Ken about the quality of the performance. Most musicians playing accompaniments to silent movies seem to feel that they have to work broadly in the musical style of the film's own era, but what was fantastic about the OZMA performance was that the music was uncompromisingly contemporary, yet worked perfectly with the images on screen - a demonstration that great art (and in this case I mean the film and the music) has the capacity to work across the (three) ages.
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