Douglas's Music Pays Tribute to a Silent Star

At the Regattabar Friday, Dave Douglas and his Keystone band put on a multimedia presentation demonstrating how well cutting-edge jazz composition from the first years of the 21st century can be matched up with cutting-edge filmmaking from the first years of the 20th.

The occasion was the first of the group's two nights in town touting its new CD/DVD tribute to silent film star Roscoe ”Fatty" Arbuckle; the CD, like the band, is named ”Keystone" in honor of Arbuckle's studio.

The opening set kicked off with Douglas cueing up Arbuckle's half-hour-long 1916 film ”Fatty & Mabel Adrift" with a DVD remote, which the band -- Douglas on trumpet, Marcus Strickland on soprano and tenor saxophones, Adam Benjamin on keyboards, Brad Jones on bass, Gene Lake on drums, and DJ Olive on turntables and samples -- proceeded to accompany live. The soloing was minimal, the score instead emphasizing carefully layered ensemble work, much of it in counterpoint to what was happening onscreen.

The video was turned off for the next three pieces, so the band could have the audience's undivided attention. “The Real Roscoe" began with turntable, bass, and drums setting up a groove, with Douglas and Strickland then leaping in with the piece's theme. “Mabel Normand," up next, began with Douglas employing his mute, followed by a moody electric piano solo by Benjamin and another tenor solo from Strickland.

“Pool Sharks" was next, and like the others was inspired by Arbuckle's films but unlike them was left off the new CD. Douglas launched it with a pyrotechnic display of his trumpet prowess, shot through with mouthed effects.

The DVD was clicked back on for the short film ”Fatty's Plucky Pup." Hard to say which had Douglas smiling more: what was going on on-screen or Lake's accompanying drumming.