If you have not heard the good news, In The Country will be gracing us with their scandanavian brilliance for a concert of silent film and jazz.
They recently won The 2011 Independent Music Award for best long film for their CD/DVD Sights & Sounds and are here as one of only 3 stops on their US tour.
On May 24th Organ Grinders is presenting a film and band combo more awesome and outrageous than anything that could have appeared to us in feverish dreams. A silent film that few have heard of and fewer have seen: The Wizard of OZ (1925). An adaptation so bizarre that if you play Dark Side of the Moon along with it… well, honestly it does not really work at all. However what does work is the new soundtrack cooked up by Norway’s In The Country, special guests at the 2010 Portland Jazz Festival.
Organ Grinders – The Wizard of OZ (1925)
May 24th – 9:30pm
Hollywood Theatre
Tickets $12 available at the Hollywood Theatre Box Office
and at Filmusik.com
Live score by In The Country
See the trailer for the performance here
Learn more about In The Country at
www.inthecountry.no
In The Country defies borders despite their name. Their spacious improvisation eschews descriptions of any kind. Get lost in the vast and melodic world of this Norwegian trio that we were lucky enough to host this month on Organ Grinders.
Voted Best Releases of 2009 by All About Jazz and L.A. Times
ORGAN GRINDERS
– From under the screen, the sounds of modern groups are paired with movies from a different era, updating the genre of Silent Film accompaniment to the sounds around us today. Organ Grinders revisits the original vision of the Hollywood Theatre, built in 1926 with an orchestra pit and a hydraulically ascending theatre organ.
As to those Wizard of OZ purists, be warned! The New York Times review noted (in 1925):
A trained duck adds to the amusement in the early scenes of this production. It steals Semon’s lollypop. Then there are several scenes devoted to Semon being chased by bees and going through other discomforts.