Microscopic Septet

Phillip Johnston's Transparent Quartet - Page of Madness (2009) {Asynchronous ‎001}
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© 2009 Asynchronous ‎Records | 001
Jazz / Progressive Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Stage & Screen / Modern Creative / Post Bop / Saxophone

Page of Madness is an original film score for Teinosuke Kinugasa’s Japanese 1926 silent film masterpiece, Kurutta Ippeiji, (A Page of Madness). It was recorded in 1998, and is just being released on CD now for the first time. It features The Transparent Quartet, and was recorded by Jon Rosenberg.

Phillip Johnston - Phillip Johnston's Big Trouble (1993) {Black Saint 120152-2}
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© 1993 Black Saint | 120152-2
Jazz / Progressive Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Modern Creative / Post Bop / Saxophone

Really, why should this music be called avant-garde? Should a band as gloriously fun as Phillip Johnston's Big Trouble really be given a stylistic label equated by many with either difficult art music or deadly serious free jazz? Yes, in the '90s jazz world, the enormously engaging saxophonist/composer and his band of accomplished musical pranksters definitely fell on the avant side of things, but that was more a reflection of the sorry state of the mainstream, in comparison to which, of course, any era's avant-garde is defined. In a rational world, Johnston's first post-Microscopic Septet project would be seen as appealing to a very broad audience segment – say, those with ears on the sides of their heads.

Phillip Johnston's Big Trouble - Flood at the Ant Farm (1996) {Black Saint 120182-2}
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© 1996 Black Saint | 120182-2
Jazz / Progressive Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Modern Creative / Post Bop / Saxophone

The second CD by Philip Johnston's Big Trouble is jazz mixing great musicianship with a touch of madness. He treats Steve Lacy's "Hemline" as if it were penned by Raymond Scott (whose music was adapted for classic Looney Tunes cartoons) and "Bone" sounds like a wild improvisation on a childhood chant. Pianist Joe Ruddick's "Heaven, Hell, or Hoboken" has a nifty calypso beat with an intense cacophony of reeds and brass. Johnston is also a gifted composer; his "Pontius Pilate Polka" blends folk dances with swinging Dixieland interludes. "Mr. Crocodile" is a light samba with a touch of reggae. Highly recommended for fans of the great melting pot of jazz.

Phillip Johnston's Transparent Quartet - The Needless Kiss (1998) {Koch Jazz - KOC CD 7898}
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© 1998 Koch Jazz | KOC CD 7898
Jazz / Progressive Jazz / Modern Creative / Post Bop / Saxophone

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.