the sounds of silents
Oh man, I can’t believe forgot to post about this: Tomorrow—oops, later today, Saturday March 15, at the downtown KCMO library, 3:30 pm. The first in a series called The Sounds of Silents, presenting silent films the way they were intended, with live accompaniment. My friend (and former piano teacher) Jeffrey Ruckman leads the Spoonbender Consort as they play original music written by Jeffrey to accompany the films.
The show tomorrow is called The Lumiére Brothers and Selected Shorts. This is some of the earliest documentary footage ever shot, some of it dating back to 1895. I can attest to how wonderful this stuff is, because my contribution to the project was to edit the very short (most under a minute) films onto a DVD for the projectionist, and the band then plays to the picture. I haven’t heard the music yet, but Jeffrey has assembled some of the best jazz and classical players in Kansas City for these shows. I can only say that what he was humming under his breath as we timed the DVD sounded very interesting.
It’s a free show, though reservations are recommended—call 816.701.3407. The downtown library is at 14 W. 10th Street. The April performance—there are four in the series—is Grass: A Nation’s Battle For Life, a 1925 documentary of Persian nomads made by the guys who later made the original King Kong.
Comments
I saw that the other day -- it sounded interesting, but there was no way we were going to make it back from Omaha in time for the movie. Did you go? How was it?
Posted by: Andrea | March 16, 2008 06:08 PM
It was good! Really, better than I even expected. Because of the way this all came about, Jeffrey had less than two weeks to write all the music, on top of his full-time job.
But the music was good, and extremely well-played. The only piece I wasn't all that crazy about was the DuChamp movie, and I just didn't care for that movie. The music for Regen, a series of images of rain falling on a German city, was especially nice.
There are four of these programs in the series, one a month until June, and I highly recommend them. Plus, they have free coffee and snacks!
Posted by: pat | March 16, 2008 06:32 PM