The season finale of the East Meets West Jazz Jam Session hosted by East End Jazz, a nonprofit performance and educational organization directed by the bassist Iris Ornig, happens on Sunday from 2 to 4:30 p.m. at the Southampton Cultural Center.
The Silent Film Jazz Jam will see a collaboration between musicians and Cliff Baldwin, a multimedia artist who has arranged silent film clips to be “scored” in real time by the performers, who will create their own music to complement the action onscreen. A professional rhythm section will play behind musicians and vocalists. Musicians will also receive cues in advance, ranging from a specific melody or a jazz standard to a particular rhythm or specific emotional movement, as the foundation for their “stories.” These prompts allow participants to bend familiar sounds to fit the mood onscreen.
Musicians of all ages and skill levels, and especially local students, have been invited to take their instruments and step into the role of film composer for the afternoon. Sign-up is by emailing [email protected].
For Ornig, who came to New York City from her native Germany in 2003 after studying jazz and popular music in St. Gallen, Switzerland, and then at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, jazz is more than a creative musical form. “With jazz, you have more sense of creativity, flexibility, and dynamics,” she said. “You have to listen to each other. That’s why I think East End Jazz as an organization is really cool, because I can teach children and adults to listen to each other again, be kind and respectful. Don’t just march over them. That’s one thing I think is very important.”
“I also see it not necessarily as an escape,” she added. “It’s to make you feel something, to get different emotions out, and just be aware of things.”
She and Baldwin met on the North Fork, where the latter has incorporated silent films into his performances with the Aquebogue Contemporary Music Ensemble, or ACME, at the Jamesport Meeting House. From these sessions, the idea for a thematic element to each of the monthly East Meets West sessions was born.
“One theme was the great saxophone players, and then New Orleans,” Ms. Ornig said. “Then I thought, how can I explore more? Cliff came into my mind and I thought, free jazz improvisation, visual and music together. One thing I love about silent movies and music is that each audience member can also create their own feeling and their own spin.”
“She’s been an important part of the ensemble,” Baldwin said of Ornig. “Plus, she’s a great upright bass player.”
He works with a software package that allows multiple methods of manipulation such as looping sections, playing film in reverse, or reordering it entirely. “I’m interested in using film as an instrument itself,” he said. “I’m interested in sound and film. When I throw in film history too, that’s something different. I decided to pull a bunch of historic
jazz films to get started,” including some depicting Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck, and Sun Ra. “On top of that, I have taken these films and am cutting them up, pulling out little riffs and rhythmic structures to loop and see if we can almost remix the tunes a bit, and see if that triggers anything. We will find out.”
Also to be included is film from an elevated train traveling from Brooklyn to Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge, shot by the Edison Manufacturing Company at the close of the 19th century. “We’ll use that as ‘Take the A Train,’ ” Ornig said. “Tower,” Baldwin’s short silent film of the Eiffel Tower, will accompany a performance of Cole Porter’s “I Love Paris.”
“And there will be a lot of cartoons also,” Ornig said, “because you can have a lot of fun with them and you don’t really need to tell everybody what’s going on.”
Like improvisation itself, the outcome is uncertain, but therein lies much of the fun, even joy, that music bestows. “I’m excited about getting all these musicians in one room and adding picture to it,” Baldwin said. “I don’t know how they’ll respond, but we’ll find out.”
“I’m very excited,” Ornig said, “and nervous also, because I have never done it before.”
The Silent Film Jazz Jam is free and open to the public, but donations will be gratefully accepted.
