Bill Frisell - High Sign/One Week (CD)

All Music Guide

In 1995, Bill Frisell released an instrumental album composed for Buster Keaton's films High Sign and One Week. The disc acts as the live accompaniment to the silent films, much like seeing them in their original release form. High Sign was the first film Keaton made independently, and portrays a director as a loner looking for work. One Week was his first publicly released film (and one of the top grossing hits of the 1920s), and is about a man who receives a build-it-yourself house from his new bride. Both films include some classic Buster Keaton moments, including a chase through a series of trapdoors and mishaps due to incorrect homebuilding directions. The original soundtrack recording includes Kermit Driscoll on acoustic and electric basses and Joey Baron on percussion. Frisell and his band performed the music to all three films at ~St. Ann's in Brooklyn, NY, in May of 1993. The warmly recorded albums are adventurous and evocative. Critics described Frisell's inspired episodic wo...rk with Keaton's films as "deceptively modest" and "melancholy Americana." These rich narrative accompaniments are essential for students of film music and evangelists of the power of the score to enrich and enlighten visual art. The group also wrote an original score to the Keaton film Go West. - JT Griffith, All Music Guide Read more Less