Dave Douglas and Keystone

Trumpeter Dave Douglas, working with the Paramount Center for the Performing Arts in Peekskill, NY, who received a National Endowment for the Arts grant to score silent films will perform to the movie's of Fatty Arbuckle. Read about "Fatty" and Dave in today's SF Chronicle's Datebook section.

A 30 minute talk about Silent Films and Jazz precedes the performance.

Douglas' Keystone band consists of Marcus Strickland on saxophones, Jamie Saft on Wurlitzer keyboard, Brad Jones on bass, Gene Lake on drums and DJ Olive on turntables. Drawing from jazz, drum 'n' bass, electronica and the early '70s funk jazz of Miles Davis, "Keystone" is a haunting, formidably original creation that certainly sounds like no other music ever scored to a silent film. Douglas says he knew he had to come up with a fresh approach after he saw Arbuckle's work.

"The acting and all that's happening is so well choreographed that it would have been redundant to make the kind of sound effects that you generally hear on film scores," he says. "Instead, I tried to create themes that apply a counterpoint that underlines the movies' themes, that gives an alternative meaning.

"And as I kept manipulating the sounds, I started to feel I had a comradeship with Arbuckle because he was experimenting every day. You can see him think, 'How am I going to capture this gag?'

Dave Douglas and Keystone: Scores performed live to silent films directed by and starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, 3301 Lyon St., San Francisco. $22-$32. (415) 776-1999. For complete San Francisco Jazz Festival schedule, go to www.sfjazz.org.

Links:
SF Chonicle article
SF Jazz Festival article
Dave Douglas web site