THE ALLOY ORCHESTRA, ROGER MILLER and FROTAGE
Frotage - a French word for "rubbing"- a term used in art, is about the organization of chance elements. This would seem to be a variation on a term for editing-"montage". This is the concept behind much of musician Roger Miller's work on display at the Paradise Lounge in Allston though March 2. And "chance" is, incidently, the name of Roger's son.
There is certainly a lot of random juxtaposition going on in Roger's creative life right now.
t\There is the show, where on opening night, he and Larry Dertsch played a set under their Binary System duo, a progressive set that combines some Alloy moments, but harkens bak to Roger's days with Birdsongs of the Mesozoic. In fact, their closing number, caled variously "Oceonography" or "Blue Ocean" reminds me f one of the most beautifully melodic of Roger,s compositions, "Orange Ocean."
Then there is Mission of Burma, entering its third year of being reunited after almost 20 years, , with gigs on the West Coast in a couple of weeks and in Boston in April. The film about their reunion, whose working title is aptly named INEXPLICABLE, will be ready in June, In fact one of early Burma tunes was "Max Ernst," the artist who, among other things, practiced "frotage."
Finally, there is the Alloy Orchestra, with the silent Hitchcock film BLACKMAIL * (see earier bog) Roger has been with them about half of their fifteen year existance. In fact, their coming together for classic silent films, was somewhat by changce. When I was programming the Coolidge and had booked the Giorgio Morodor restored version with its awful pop soundtrack to show for some architectural convention, Erica Max, my managing director, said not to worry, that we could get our old friends Roger of Calb\eb Sampson (the founder of the Alloy) to "whip something up: That night, by chance, we ran into Caleb at the Coolidge, we asked him, and the rest is history. When Caleb died suddently a few years ago, Roger was brought in, His percussive, often atonal rhythms seemed perfect for the Alloy.
And they did a great job with BLACKMAIL. As manager Ken Winokur says, the group has evolved to be more in the service of the film than in drawing attention to themselves. Occasionaly, I miss the melodies of METROPOLIS and THE WIND, and I like the bombast of Eisenstein's STRIKE (Roger's first score with the Alloy) and THE GENERAL. Other favorite scores include Harold Lloyd's SPEEDY and the Miller rescored NOSFERATU. BLACKMAIL was more understated, but it help me to rediscover the film and appreciate its expressionist underpinnings.
Seeing Roger Miller in three separate creative roles in a six day period was something new. I've known Roger for 23 years. My son, who is involved with INEXPLICABLE, first met the Burma boys in myl iving room watching classic avant=garde films at that time. Watching him play before almost 800 people at the Simerville Theatre or with Binary System before 45 people at the Paradise, I could te;;it was all the same, as I'm sure it will be when be performs at that bastion of bourgouise art, Lincoln Centre. It's aways been about music for Roger. Except for his political passion against Bush, he remains argey abivious to other aspects of pop culture. When a longtime friend and fan of his talked about meeting and getting a job with Theo Epstein, Roger seemed to be blissfully unaware f who Theo is.
So, a lot of Roger/s career trajectorary has been :frotage, and occasionaly inexpicable. But his life has been unified by his passion for making music. And, I;m glad it's coming together for him.
There is certainly a lot of random juxtaposition going on in Roger's creative life right now.
t\There is the show, where on opening night, he and Larry Dertsch played a set under their Binary System duo, a progressive set that combines some Alloy moments, but harkens bak to Roger's days with Birdsongs of the Mesozoic. In fact, their closing number, caled variously "Oceonography" or "Blue Ocean" reminds me f one of the most beautifully melodic of Roger,s compositions, "Orange Ocean."
Then there is Mission of Burma, entering its third year of being reunited after almost 20 years, , with gigs on the West Coast in a couple of weeks and in Boston in April. The film about their reunion, whose working title is aptly named INEXPLICABLE, will be ready in June, In fact one of early Burma tunes was "Max Ernst," the artist who, among other things, practiced "frotage."
Finally, there is the Alloy Orchestra, with the silent Hitchcock film BLACKMAIL * (see earier bog) Roger has been with them about half of their fifteen year existance. In fact, their coming together for classic silent films, was somewhat by changce. When I was programming the Coolidge and had booked the Giorgio Morodor restored version with its awful pop soundtrack to show for some architectural convention, Erica Max, my managing director, said not to worry, that we could get our old friends Roger of Calb\eb Sampson (the founder of the Alloy) to "whip something up: That night, by chance, we ran into Caleb at the Coolidge, we asked him, and the rest is history. When Caleb died suddently a few years ago, Roger was brought in, His percussive, often atonal rhythms seemed perfect for the Alloy.
And they did a great job with BLACKMAIL. As manager Ken Winokur says, the group has evolved to be more in the service of the film than in drawing attention to themselves. Occasionaly, I miss the melodies of METROPOLIS and THE WIND, and I like the bombast of Eisenstein's STRIKE (Roger's first score with the Alloy) and THE GENERAL. Other favorite scores include Harold Lloyd's SPEEDY and the Miller rescored NOSFERATU. BLACKMAIL was more understated, but it help me to rediscover the film and appreciate its expressionist underpinnings.
Seeing Roger Miller in three separate creative roles in a six day period was something new. I've known Roger for 23 years. My son, who is involved with INEXPLICABLE, first met the Burma boys in myl iving room watching classic avant=garde films at that time. Watching him play before almost 800 people at the Simerville Theatre or with Binary System before 45 people at the Paradise, I could te;;it was all the same, as I'm sure it will be when be performs at that bastion of bourgouise art, Lincoln Centre. It's aways been about music for Roger. Except for his political passion against Bush, he remains argey abivious to other aspects of pop culture. When a longtime friend and fan of his talked about meeting and getting a job with Theo Epstein, Roger seemed to be blissfully unaware f who Theo is.
So, a lot of Roger/s career trajectorary has been :frotage, and occasionaly inexpicable. But his life has been unified by his passion for making music. And, I;m glad it's coming together for him.
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