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JAZZ
If a bad soundtrack can ruin a good film, a good soundtrack can often take a picture to the next level, which is what makes Richard Einhorn's Voices of Light for The Passion of Joan of Arc or Yo La Tengo's scoring of Jean Painleve's films so wonderful. They can show the movies they accompany in a totally different light to the point where re-watching them with the score is to watch a completely different movie. But perhaps the most interesting silent film scores ever made were by jazz guitarist Bill Frisell and his trio (Kermit Driscoll and Joey Baron) for three of Buster Keaton's movies. Einhorn's choral score matches with Joan's outsized drama, and Painleve's weirdness seems natural for the kind of free-form play offered by Yo La Tengo, but jazz and silent comedies? Oddly, it's a natural fit.
Frisell originally released the scores to "The High Sign," "One Week" and Go West on two albums back in 1995. While by no means minor works, they were oddities because of the difficulty at the time in seeing what, exactly, Frisell was doing. Access to these films was extremely limited and syncing the scores up precisely with a VHS tape is a fool's errand. The music itself is undeniably worth listening to, but for any but the most die-hard fans, understanding the intricacies of Frisell's project was out of reach.
The DVD release of these films features both albums in their full glory and, most importantly, synced up versions of Keaton's films. Although there's not much else there and only Frisell's scores are included, it's easy enough to hear more typical scores online. What you'll find fits exactly with the stereotype of these scores, doing a decent enough job emphasizing certain aspects of the performance, but little else.
Frisell's scores for the films aren't nearly so tame. One of their defining traits is how, despite their jazz heritage, the scores do an incredible job capturing the feel of the west. Their motifs sound like the sand-sculpted landscapes of the unsettled parts of the nation, feeling in some ways close kin to Neil Young's score for Dead Man. Rather than just another silent short, under the wing of Frisell, these films feel like works exploring the untamed and the unexpected, particularly fitting for what Keaton was doing onscreen.
For the type of incredibly difficult timing that goes into action-scoring, and Keaton was in his own way an action star, the score's fidelity to the screen is remarkable. Punctuating actions that can happen at any moment is its own art, and while some composers are up to the challenge (John Williams' score for Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark is a particularly impressive course in learning how to capture action timing), jazz ends up being a perfect match for the genre. Frisell's syncopated rhythms are able to break out at any moment to express a fall or a run, and do so without having to break from their melodies.
In fact, one thing that quickly becomes apparent is how, like Chaplin, Keaton's comedy often becomes dancelike. But while with Chaplin this comes out of his normal movements, for Keaton it's in his stuntwork. When in "The High Sign," Keaton and a gang pursuing him are moving through a house, Frisell's score emphasizes the synchronicity of them jumping through windows and through walls. While not exactly beautiful, the scene becomes oddly fixating as you watch the figures run in time with the percussive music.
Both of the shorts Frisell chose are particularly strong, with "One Week" featuring incredible set-pieces and "The High Sign" some inspired gags. They were both made by Keaton while he was just beginning to find his own voice in 1920 and show preludes of what he'd develop more fully later on. They work well enough on their own, but Go West, a not-particularly-notable feature from the middle-'20s, ends up the highlight of the DVD, and not because of Keaton. Its simple, slow-moving plot and repetitive jokes aren't Keaton's strongest material, but the length allows Frisell room to really develop his ideas, with motifs coming in and out of the soundtrack and building until the inspired end of the film.
The strongest element of the score for Go West is its emphasis on Keaton's full range of emotions. Silent-movie scores have a way of homogenizing everything by turning the world into a combination of slapstick and melodrama. Like the other silent-comedy stars of his time, Keaton certainly traffics in these elements, but there's also a level of darkness within his films that tends to be ignored. Go West doesn't go as deep as The General or Steamboat Bill Jr., but it does have its share of true melancholy and a feeling of loneliness that Keaton did better than anyone else of his time. Keaton's character, the aptly named Friendless, has his closest relationship with a cow and spends most of his time wandering through a world of rejections. Frisell's score underlines this aspect without becoming too sappy. The overall result is a greater appreciation for Keaton as more than just a funny man who did some insane stunts, but also for the darker ambitions living in the back of his works.
Frisell's works aren't a re-imagining of Keaton or an attempt to distort what's originally there. In effect, they're an act of film criticism and interpretation, and in doing so, they communicate a view of Keaton's films that's almost as valuable as they are beautiful. Even old fans of Keaton who already own his works on DVD should give Frisell's versions a glance, as it shows a side of Keaton that's difficult to see otherwise.
