Club Foot Orchestra
Club Foot Orchestra | |
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Origin | San Francisco, California, United States |
Years active | 1983–present |
Labels | Ralph Records, Heyday, Rastascan |
Members |
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Past members |
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Website | www |
The Club Foot Orchestra is a musical ensemble known for their silent film scores. Their influences include Eastern European folk music, impressionism, and jazz fusion;[1] The New Yorker described their style as "music that bubbles up from the intersection of aesthetics and the id."[2]
Their performance venues have included
History
In the 1980s, musician Richard Marriott lived above a performance art nightclub, the Club Foot, in Bayview, San Francisco; with Beth Custer, he founded a house band, the Club Foot Orchestra.[1] On Ralph Records, the band released Wild Beasts and Kidnapped.[3] According to the band's website as of 2021, both Custer and Marriott still play with the ensemble, with Marriott also functioning as creative and artistic director.[1]
Current members
- Beth Custer, clarinets, keyboard
- Sheldon Brown, woodwinds
- Chris Grady, trumpet
- Richard Marriott, brass, woodwinds
- Gino Robair, percussion
- Will Bernard, guitar
- Kymry Esainko, piano
- Alisa Rose, violin
- Sascha Jacobson, double bass
- Deirdre McClure, conductor
Silent film scoring
The Club Foot Orchestra is known for their live accompaniment to silent films, including features and shorts of widespread genres.[4] The scores are written collaboratively, in a process they describe as "a fundamental element in their unique musical style."[1] They also perform music in other genres, such as Custer's score for choreographer Joe Goode's Maverick Strain performance installation and Marriott's scores for Della Davidson's Ten PM Dream and Eva Luna.
Marriott explained how they started writing for movies:
I became interested in doing something visually that further expressed the ideas behind the music; something that would help put the music in context. I considered projecting slides of experimental art on a screen behind us. Then a friend suggested, after catching our show: "The music is so cinematic, why don't you take outtakes of 1950s sitcoms and score them." I put it under my hat.
Later that night I saw a Lily Tomlin skit on Saturday Night Live. She was reading the Dow Jones averages of various art trends. She reported, "Pop art up 10... Op art up 20... Expressionism down 30." I turned the channel. And there was The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. The distorted sets and dreamlike atmosphere in the film were the qualities that I always envisioned accompanying our music. The subversive plot was drenched in the unconscious. I was obsessed to write for that film.[1]
Marriott's score premiered at the 1987
Francis Lederer, who played Alwa Schön in Pandora's Box, attended a screening of that film in 1995 at the Nuart Theater in Los Angeles. Buster Keaton's wife Eleanor attended a screening of Sherlock Jr. in 1993, and exclaimed, "Bravo Club Foot Orchestra! Buster would have loved your music."[6]
In 1999 a smaller version of the orchestra, along with
The Club Foot Gamelan premiered a score for the silent Indonesian film Goona Goona at the 2019
Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat
In 1995, the Club Foot Orchestra scored and recorded 39 episodes of the CBS cartoon series The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat, produced by Film Roman. Gino Robair produced the cartoon's soundtrack, which was recorded at Hyde Street Studios in San Francisco and later at Guerilla Euphonics in Oakland. All members of the group, which at the time included Myles Boisen, Matt Brubeck, Catherine Clune, Steve Kirk, Nik Phelps, and Elliot Kavee, wrote music for these episodes.
Film scores (features)
- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1987, Composer: Marriott)
- Nosferatu (1989, Composers: Marriott, Robair)
- Metropolis (Moroder edit) (1991, Composers: Marriott, Kirk, Brown, Phelps, Boisen, Custer)
- Sherlock Jr. (1992, Composers: Marriott, Boisen, Kirk, Brown, Custer, Phelps)
- Pandora's Box (1995, Composers: Marriott, Brown, Boisen, Brubeck, Kirk, Custer, Phelps, Kavee)
- The Hands of Orlac (1997, Composers: Marriott, Brown, Robair)
- Legong: Dance of the Virgins (1999, Composers: Marriott, Subandi)
- Battleship Potemkin (2005, Composer: Marriott)
- Phantom of the Opera (2005, Composer: Marriott)
- Metropolis (Complete) (2013, Composer: Marriott)
- Go West (2015, Composers: Marriott, Custer, Brown)
Film scores (shorts and smaller ensembles)
- Entr'acte (1989, Composer: Satie; Arrangers: Cowart, McClure)
- Pool of Thanatos (1991, Composer: Custer)
- Felix the Cat Woos Whoopie (1992, Composer: Club Foot Orchestra)
- Koko Convict (1992, Composer: Kirk)
- How a Mosquito Operates (1992, Composer: Boisen)
- Cops (1993, Composers: Kirk, Brown, Boisen)
- The Idea (1993, Composer: Phelps)
- Steamboat Bill (2011, Composer: Marriott)
- The Golem (2011, Composers: Brown, Rose, Marriott)
- The Godless Girl (2011, Composer: Marriott)
- One Week (2018, Composer: Marriott)
- The Blacksmith (2018, Composer: Custer)
- Cops (new score) (2018, Composer: Brown)
- Goona Goona (2019, Composer: Marriott)
Discography
- Wild Beasts, 1986 (Vinyl), Ralph Records, San Francisco
- Kidnapped, 1987 (Vinyl), Ralph Records, San Francisco
- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 1988 (Cassette/VHS), Ralph Records, San Francisco
- Nosferatu, 1989 (Cassette/VHS), Ralph Records, San Francisco
- Metropolis (live recording), 1991 (CD), Heyday Records, San Francisco
- Kidnapped, Wild Beasts & More, reissue 1995 (compilation CD), Rastascan
- Sherlock Jr. & Felix 1995 (CD), Rastascan
- Plays Nino Rota: Selections From la Dolce Vita, Amarcord, Nights of Cabiria, 8½, Rastascan
- Nosferatu Live at the World Financial Center January 25, 2001 (CD), Conceptual Noise, San Francisco
- Legong: Dance of the Virgins, 2004 (DVD), Milestone, New York
- Legong: Dance of the Virgins, Live Recording, 2013 (CD), Conceptual Noise, San Francisco
References
- ^ a b c d e f "Club Foot Orchestra". Club Foot Orchestra. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
- ^ "The New Yorker Archives, Goings On About Town". December 2, 1996. p. 42. Retrieved 2018-08-11.
- ^ "Rastascan Records | BRD 013". Rastascan.com. 2008-06-29. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
- ^ "Jan-2013 Beth Custer interview on Outsight Radio Hours". Archive.org. Retrieved 10 February 2013.
- ^ Castro Theatre. ""Nosferatu": Classic Silent Film with Live Accompaniment by the Club Foot Orchestra". Goldstar. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
- ^ "Liner notes, Rastascan Records | BRD S3 Rastascan.com".