MP3 Phillip Johnston´s Transparent Quartet - The Needless Kiss

20th Century jazz chamber music

11 MP3 Songs in this album (62:28) !
Related styles: JAZZ: Chamber Jazz, JAZZ: Modern Creative Jazz

People who are interested in John Kirby Steve Lacy The Microscopic Septet should consider this download.


Details:
The Needless Kiss was the first CD by Phillip Johnston's Transparent Quartet, the drummerless quartet he formed in the late 1990s after leading The Microscopic Septet and Big Trouble. It was released in 1998 on Koch Jazz, but is now out-of-print, due to the corporate downsizing of that label. In addition to originals by Johnston and pianist Joe Ruddick, the group played distinctive arrangements of tunes by a variety of composers, for instance on this CD, Frederic Chopin & Raymond Scott.

The Transparent Quartet:

Phillip Johnston: soprano, alto saxophone
Joe Ruddick: piano, baritone saxophone
Mark Josefsberg: vibraphone
David Hofstra: bass

Artist: PHILLIP JOHNSTON
A saxophonist, composer and arranger of both jazz and new music, Phillip has been a significant figure in the underground music scene of New Yorkâs downtown since the beginning of the 1980âs. He has composed extensively for film including Paul Mazurskyâs Faithful, Philip Haasâ The Music of Chance and Money Man, Dorris Dörrieâs Paradise and Geld, and, recently, Stolen Life by Peter Rasmussen & Jackie Turnure & Noise by Henry Bean. He has also written for silent film, including Tod Browningâs The Unknown, The George Méliès Project, Teinosuke Kinugasaâs Page Of Madness and F.W. Murnauâs Faust. His theatre composition credits include Measure For Measure, War Of The Roses, The Comedy Of Errors, The Merchant Of Venice and Macbeth for Bell Shakespeare; Young Goodman Brown with Richard Foreman, Venus with Suzan-Lori Parks, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Ruysch and The Falls with Hilary Bell, and Drawn To Death: A Three Panel Opera with Art Spiegelman. Dance credits include Karole Armitageâs The Predatorsâ Ball and Keely Garfieldâs Minor Repairs Necessary for which he won a âBessieâ in 1999.

This CD was originally released in 1998, and went out of print when Koch Jazz was corporately down-sized. These are copies of the orginal CD from the artists own stock.

From reviews of The Needless Kiss:

âPhillip Johnston is one of the most original and witty composers and bandleaders in jazz¬âas likely to give a sweet and heartfelt chamber jazz rendition of a Chopin mazurka as to one of Raymond Scottâs cartoon ditties.â
âThe Boston Phoenix.

âThe quartet members blend their disparate influences skillfully and their work, like Raymond Scottâs, abounds with eccentric humor and lyricism.â
âHarvey Pekar, Boston Herald.

âThis odd, engaging, drummerless band mixes braininess with mirthâthe longtime hallmarks of their leader, saxophonist Phillip Johnston.â
âEntertainment Weekly.

âThe Needless Kiss, the latest recording by Johnstonâs Transparent Quartet, is full of nineteen-fifties formalism (West Coast cool, Modern Jazz Quartet subtlety), which Johnston gleefully personalizes with sharp phrasings and free jazz tangents. Itâs all held together by Johnstonâs fine alto-saxophone work and superb soprano-saxophone playing, and by a drummerless unti that makes imaginative use of vibes, piano, baritone saxophone, and bass.â
âSteve Futterman, The New Yorker.