(Review by Russell)
This time last year at Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club Jeff Barnhart presented his Silent Comedy Film Festival - Reel 1. St Augustine's audience loved it and the popular American promised to return with more classic material from cinema's pioneering years. True to his word our piano master returned with 'Reel 2' under his arm.
Buster Keaton is a hero for Barnhart and always features in his silent film presentations. Reel 2 included The Bell Boy (Keaton, co-star and director, 25 mins) from 1918. As Barnhart observed, Keaton's on-screen performance alongside Fatty Arbuckle received favourable reviews and as his co-star would soon be engulfed in scandal this was, in some ways, a pivotal moment.
Barnhart once again insisted that as we became engrossed in the on-screen action he (Barnhart) would become invisible, forgotten. Well, not quite Mr B! Such is our pianist's virtuosity that the 'soundtrack' to this matinee at the movies proved as engrossing as the action on the silver screen.
One year on (1919) Billy Blazes, Esq from the Hal Roach studio paired Keaton with Bebe Daniels, a star in her own right who would later in life spend some time this side of the Atlantic. Great routines, Keaton on top form, Barnhart suggested this spoof of the Hollywood western wasn't Clint Eastwood!
Barnhart considered The Goat (1921, Keaton co-director with Malcolm St. Clair) a Keaton masterpiece. The plot - Keaton, mistaken for villain Dead Shot Dan, is pursued throughout twenty seven minutes of brilliant set-ups. Serious talent on screen (Keaton), serious talent at the keyboard (Barnhart). Reel 3 at Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club is on the cards for 2020.
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Calvert & the Old Fools @ Hash Bar & Kitchen, Darlington - September 21
Two minutes from St Augustine's Parish Centre on Coniscliffe Road stands Hash Bar & Kitchen. A favourite Darlington Jazz Festival venue, as your correspondent wandered past on a beautiful Saturday morning the door to the premises just happened to be open and what do you know...Calvert and the Old Fools were concluding their monthly jazz brunch set. Piano, bass and the tenor saxophone of Richie Emmerson went out on Lerner and Loewe's On the Street Where You Live.
Russell
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