WHO AM THE MICROSCOPIC SEPTET?
BEFORE
AFTER
PERSONNEL:
PHILLIP
JOHNSTON
One of the most active saxophonists and composers (theatre, dance, film
scores and jazz music) in New York’s Downtown scene, Phillip
Johnston has been active as a performer and bandleader since the 1980s,
working with John Zorn, Joel Forrester, Elliott Sharp, Eugene
Chadbourne, Mikel Rouse, Wayne Horvitz, Shelley Hirsch, Walter
Thompson, Lenny Pickett’s Borneo Horns, Earl King, and Guy
Klucevsek. He founded, led and co-led several highly acclaimed jazz
groups, including the Microscopic Septet (1980-1993), Big Trouble
(1991-1995), the Transparent Quartet (1995-2000) and Fast
‘N’ Bulbous (his arrangements of the music of
Captain Beefheart co-led with Gary Lucas, which released a CD on
Cuneiform in 2005). Johnston has released more than a dozen albums
under his own name and in various groups/ensembles on a variety of
prominent labels, including Avant, Winter & Winter, Tzadik,
Black Saint, and Koch Jazz.
After disbanding the Microscopic Septet, Johnston focused his attention
on composing film, theater and dance scores, in addition to doing work
for radio and TV. A prolific composer, he has scored more than a dozen
motion pictures, working with such directors including Doris
Dörrie(Geld, Paul Mazursky (Faithful),
Philip Haas (The Music of
Chance) and Henry Bean (Noise. In
addition, he’s done scores for silent movies,
including F.W. Murnau’s Faust (1927), which premiered at the
2002 New York Film Festival and has subsequently toured Europe and the
US. Two CDs of Johnston’s film scores have been released by
Zorn: a compilation of film scores, Music for Films (1998, Tzadik), and
The Unknown (1994, Avant), a score for Tod Browning’s 1927
silent film. Johnston has also collaborated with artist Art Spiegelman
(Maus) on “Drawn To Death: A Three-Panel Opera”.
The growing friendship between them led to Spiegelman’s offer
to contribute the cover art for the Microscopic Septet re-releases on
Cuneiform.
Johnson’s distinctive compositions are most notable for their
defiance of genre and consistently pervasive humor. As Seth Rogovy
wrote in the Berkshire Eagle:
“…what distinguishes or characterizes Johnston's
work, and what makes it impossible to tame or define in conventional
terms, is its willful perversity – its utter unwillingness to
stay in one place, its defiance of genre, its universal embrace of the
offbeat, its celebration of the quirky, dramatic and surprising
gesture. His scores can flow seamlessly from cocktail jazz to
horn-laced funk grooves to acoustic chamber music to synthesized
electronics to frenzied post-bop to banjo bluegrass to rock 'n' roll to
ersatz klezmer to cartoon music to skronking metal to Asian harp to
blues guitar riffs to blowzy polka and back to classically-styled,
string quartet music.”
In 2005, he moved with his family to Sydney, Australia, where he leads
The Coolerators, and SNAP, and writes music for film and theatre. He
continues to perform in Europe and the US from time to time.
JOEL
FORRESTER
Pianist, composer and arranger Joel Forrester is one of the most
prolific composers to emerge from New York’s Downtown scene
and perhaps “the world’s finest improvisational
accompanist to silent films,” according to The Paris Free
Voice. Composer of more than 1200 tunes, Forrester co-led the
critically acclaimed Microscopic Septet with Phillip Johnston. In
addition, as the leader or member of the ensembles Private Life, The
Illustrious Others, and People Like Us, Forrester has released albums
on Ride Symbol, Koch Jazz and Koch International. Forrester is perhaps
most widely known for composing the theme song for National Public
Radio’s “Fresh Air with Terry Gross”,
(recorded by the Microscopic Septet) which has been played and heard on
American radio more often than any other jazz composition in the last
28 years. Forrester actively performs in both New York and Paris; he
has played in Paris at the Louvre, the American Center, the Forum des
Images and the Musée d’Orsay and in New York at
the Film Forum, the Brooklyn Museum and the Anthology Film Archives.
Born in Pittsburgh, Forrester met Thelonious Monk upon moving to New
York City as a young man, who urged him to focus on “music
that hadn’t been written yet.” The Paris Free Voice
relates Forrester’s unique tutelage under the guidance of
Monk, shortly before his death in 1982:
“…Fully dressed, Monk would lie on top of his bed,
listening to Forrester’s playing in the adjoining room.
‘It was the most acute form of musical criticism
I’ve ever received,’ recalls Forrester.
‘If he didn’t like what I was playing,
he’d just stretch his foot off the bed and kick the door
shut!’”
Critics worldwide have extolled Forrester’s compositional and
improvisational expertise. Heather Phares of All Music Guide describes
his “complex, often witty composition skills,”
while The New Yorker lauds Forrester as “…a most
agreeably eclectic pianist, and among the most undervalued of jazz
composers. The sheer pleasure he brings to a panoply of styles, and to
the individual way he absorbs them all, denotes comfort rather than
scholarly erudition.” A review from AllAboutJazz.com perhaps
best locates Forrester in the school of modern jazz:
“Joel Forrester in an undiscovered national treasure. He is
brilliant both as a pianist and as a composer. His music is
intelligent, witty, and colorful as it looks into the jazz tradition
and emerges as something individual and different. Millions have heard
his great theme for the NPR show Fresh Air with Terry Gross.
…The music is identifiably Joel’s –
ever-fresh and smartly swinging.”
DON DAVIS
Has performed and/or recorded with The Waitresses, Toots and the
Maytals, LL Cool J, Swollen Monkeys, NY Gong, Material, Carla Bley,
Karl Berger, Marc Black, Michael Mantler, Dr.Nerve, Danzig, Peter
Apfelbaum, Rusted Root, Rooster, Larry Simon and Groove Bacteria.
Currently teaching in New Hampshire and performs with "Davis and
Deleault," Poet F D Reeve, the New Hampshire Jazz Orchestra, and the
Don Davis trio among others.
MIKE HASHIM
Has performed with Cab Calloway, Doc Cheatham, Muddy Waters, Nancy
Wilson, Dizzy Gillespie, Jo Jones, Sonny Greer, Roy Eldridge, Skitch
Henderson and the NY Pops, Ruby Braff, Madeline Kahn, Bob Wilber, Joe
Williams, Panama Francis, Gatemouth Brown, Sammy Price, The Duke
Ellington Band and Benny Carter. His own recordings feature, among
others, Jimmy Rowles, Claudio Roditi, Mike LeDonne and Kenny
Washington, and include special projects devoted to the works of Fats
Waller, Billy Strayhorn & Kurt Weill.
He currently leads the 15-piece Billy Strayhorn Orchestra, performs in
duo with Judy Carmichael, and tours the world regularly both as a
leader and as a sideman. As such he has performed in the US, Europe,
Asia and South America. His most recent record as a leader is
“Green-Up Time,” featuring the Axis String Quartet,
on Hep Records. Mike joined the Microscopic Septet in 2007.
Note:
Paul
Shapiro left The Micros
in 2007 to devote himself to his own music, and was replaced by the
redoubtable Michael Hashim. Paul appears
on the CD reissues Seven Men in
Neckties and Surrealistic
Swing.
PAUL
SHAPIRO
Saxophonist, flutist, composer and bandleader Paul Shapiro has been
active on the New York scene for over two decades. Paul's first solo
album, "Midnight Minyan," was released in 2003 on John Zorn's Tzadik
Records. Rooted in jazz and Jewish tradition, the critically acclaimed
recording blended melodies from the synagogue with top-rate
musicianship. His next record, entitled "Its in the Twilight", has just
been released. In 2004 Paul was commissioned by the Museum of Jewish
Heritage to compose a new score for a silent film. Paul chose the 1925
boxing classic "His People" which was filmed in the Lower Eastside.
Paul has recorded with many artists, including Lou Reed, Queen Latifah,
Brooklyn Funk Essentials, Steven Bernstein's Diaspora Soul, Khaled,
Yoko Kanno's Cowboy Bebop, Ofra Haza, Majek Fashek, Ben Folds Five,
Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, Towa Tei, his own 80's avant-funk band
Foreign Legion.
DAVE
SEWELSON
Sewelson has played and/or recorded with the 25 O'Clock Band, Jemeel
Moondoc's Jus Grew Orchestra, Noise R us, Mofungo, Freedomland, The
Fazely Brothers, The President, Konk and Illuminati. He was a founding
member of the Microscopic Septet and played with Wayne Horvitz, Bill
Horvitz, Robin Holcomb, Saheb Sarbib, John Zorn, Roy Campbell, Elliot
Sharp, Dee Pop, Frank Lowe, Pat Place, Billy Bang, Walter Perkins,
Bobby Radcliff, Clayton Thomas, Kyosuke Otsuka, Norah Jones, and so
many more. Sewelson is currently involved in several projects, among
them William Parker's Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra and Fast 'n'
Bulbous. He leads The Daves, Sewelsonics, and is a member of Two
Sisters Inc (two baris, one mind...and a bass).
DAVID HOFSTRA
Bassist and tuba player David Hofstra has performed on close to 100 CDs
since 1980. Constantly active on the New York jazz scene, he has
recorded with Wayne Horvitz, Bobby Previte, Michael Callen, Bobby
Radcliff, Bill Frisell, The Waitresses, Robin Holcomb, John Zorn,
Elliot Sharp, The Metropolitan Klezmer Orchestra, Mark Ribot, Lou
Grassi, Sewelsonics, William Parker, and many others.
RICHARD DWORKIN
Drummer Richard Dworkin has been active on the New York scene since
1980, when he began playing with the Microscopic Septet. He has
appeared on over 35 CDs, drumming for James Chance, Alex Chilton,
Philip Johnston's Big Trouble, Bobby Radcliff, Harry Shearer, Samm
Bennett, Eric Anderson, Fast 'n Bulbous, Michael Callen, and others.
Return to front page
Email The
Microscopic Septet.