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| Downbeat Magazine Record Review June 1995 By Frank-John Hadley |
| Go West The High Sign/One Week |
| Go West Nonesuch 79350 5 Stars |
| Given his interest in American cultural history, which was on display in a few earlier Nonesuch releases, Bill Frisell could be expected to look closely at the classic films of Hollywood. Blending composition and improvisation, mixing jazz, blues, country and rock, the Seattle resident invokes his unorthodox sensibility upon two short Buster Keaton silent comedies, The Hih Sign and One Week, and upon the Great Stone Face's feature film Go West, all from the early 1920's (on two separate CDs under the heading of Music For The Films Of Buster Keaton. Go West is the most sentimentle feature Keaton ever ever made, though its pathos comes heavily streaked with absurdity since the film concerns the love between a hapless man, Friendless, and his cow Brown Eyes. Frisell's thoughtfully shaped guitar speech seems to draw its resonance from the disturbing melancholia of Jeaton on screen. He and his rhythm section propel the film with a sort of loopy menace, playing an ingratiating theme now and again that burrows deep into our subconious. Like the film's whimsical plot, the artful music never lets you know where it's going next. Frisell wears the master comedian's tragic-comedic mask very well indeed. Ditto for the second disc. On The High Sign, the tale of a sad sack saving the town penny pincher from bandits, Keaton carefully integrates his gag sequences while Frisell provides incisive sonic commentary on the films moods, using nervous guitar jangles and irresolutions or a recurring, bittersweet little melody. Despite some hearty laughs, The High Sign just isn't much of a film and Frisell might have been better off taking a lighthearted approach rather than searching for poetic solemnity in the unremarkable visual images. But, then agin, the unexpected is the guitarist's specialty. One Week, a vastly superior film, has Keaton methodically constructing his honeymoon cottage from a how-to-do-it kit, following backwards instructions that result in a screwball angular building that later gets reduced to rubble by a train. Frisell and his alert band give Keaton's character his heroic worth, underscoring the strength of purpose behind his grim demenor by alternating passages of bluesy, aw-shucks playfulness with serious-minded spatial meditations. The latter to films, without Frisell's soundtracks, have just appeared on videocassette, from Keno International. Coordinate the VCR and CD player-you'll be glad you did. |
| The High Sign/One Week Nonesuch 79351 4 Stars |
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