MP3 Phillip Johnston - Normalology

Surrealistic swing

13 MP3 Songs in this album (66:42) !
Related styles: JAZZ: Modern Creative Jazz, JAZZ: Weird Jazz

People who are interested in Raymond Scott John Kirby The Microscopic Septet should consider this download.


Details:
Notes:
Normalology was originally released in 1997 on Eighth Day Records, a small label out of Chicago. At the time I didn't think that The Microscopic Septet would ever perform or record again, and I thought it a shame that these pieces would never be heard by any but the notorious "cult following" of the Micros.
So I assembled a group composed of the people I was then working with in my group, Big Trouble, and ex-Micros, and recorded some of them for this record.
Unfortunately, the record company went out of business almost as soon as the record came out, so, while it got some good reviews, the record virtually never saw the inside of a record store.
It was later re-released by Koch Jazz, but again went out-of-print when Donald Elfman was fired and the great Koch Jazz label was corporately-downsized by Koch Records.

Personnel:

Phillip Johnston: soprano saxophone
Allan Chase: alto saxophone
Paul Shapiro: tenor saxophone
Bob DeBellis: baritone saxophone
Joe Ruddick: piano, organ
Stew Cutler: guitar
David Hofstra: bass, Fender bass ,tuba
Richard Dworkin: drums

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.

Throughout, he has maintained a parallel career as a saxophonist, both working with others and leading his own bands. During the 1980âs he led the Microscopic Septet, and in the 1990âs he led Big Trouble and The Transparent Quartet. He has recently toured internationally with with the seven-piece Fast âNâ Bulbous: The Captain Beefheart Project, featuring Gary Lucas, for which he arranged and conducted, and the reanimated Microscopic Septet. Phillipâs recordings include Tales From the Cryptic (Winter & Winter) with Guy Klucevsek; Pork Chop Blue Around The Rind, and the recent Waxed Oop (Cuneiform) with Fast âNâ Bulbous, and Seven Men in Neckties & Surrealistic Swing (Cuneiform), a four-CD retrospective of his work with the Microscopic Septet, which was followed up recently by Lobster Leaps In, their first new recording in 20 years. He lived most of his adult life in New York City, until 2005 when he relocated to Sydney, Australia with his wife, Australian playwright Hilary Bell, and their two children, where he performs with SNAP, a saxophone quartet, and Phillip Johnston and the Coolerators.

Reviews:

"Saxophonist/composer Phillip Johnston's music embodies all that's good about jazz. It's honest, original, and inspired, above and beyond the typical. It's also some of the smartest and best-humored music to have found a home under the jazz banner."
- Chris Kelsey, Jazziz, Jan '98

"Fans of the long-gone Microscopic Septet will certainly be familiar with the jaunty tone and delightful ensemble playing of the latest solo outing by former Micro leader, Phillip JohnstonThe product of a charmingly peculiar mind, Normalology fits unsquarely in a playful jazz tradition that includes Monk,Raymond Scott and even a trace of the Crusaders."
- Derk Richardson, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Feb '98

"Readers familiar with soprano sax player Phillip Johnston's memorable music with the Microscopic Sextet and subsequent Big Trouble project can expect comparable charm and scope on "Normalology.""
- David Lewis, Cadence Magazine, November, 1997