From: malcolm@wrs.com (Malcolm Humes)
Subject: Re: The Clubfoot Orchestra (who are they?) - Dr. Caligari/Nosferatu
Keywords: silent films
Organization: Wind River Systems, Inc.
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 22:01:27 GMT

jamesc@cs.concordia.ca (SCHIDLOWSKY james c.) writes:

>Recently on PBS I watched the silent films "The Cabinet of Dr. Kaligari",
>and "Nosferatu".  Just before they started, a voice-over said that they
>had a new score by The Clubfoot Orchestra.  There was no other mention
>or credits, so could anyone tell me anything more about them?
 
I've heard that they neglected to add any additional credits to the videos
they've added their soundtracks to. That's a shame. 
 
>Who are 
>they?  Do they only do music for silent films?  Any recordings?
 
>I thought that they were really good.. jazzy at times, and bits reminded
>me of Frank Zappa, and The Doors.
 
Clubfoot Orchestra is a group headed by composer Richard Marriot, based
in San Francisco. ClubFoot's early roots go back to an early 80's band
of mostly non-musicians at a club called Clubfoot, and there was an lp
released under the name Clubfoot that as far as I can tell bears almost
no connection to the later group which started playing clubs around
San Francisco in the mid 80's. Marriot's group was a club band doing 
warped jazz for a while, and an incredible guitarist named Snakefinger 
used to sit in with them occasionally. They generally played sort of punky 
dance clubs. I think I once saw them open for Adrian Belew. Richard Marriot  
has also recorded with Snakefinger and his friends The Residents, a cult 
group also based in San Francisco.  
 
Around 1988 or a little later Richard composed a score for Caligari. It
was quite a sucess when it debuted - and the 12 or 13 piece band hired
a conductor and started playing live with the films in local art film
houses. It worked out well and Richard went on to compose a score for
Nosferatu (Murnau's silent version, not Herzog's remake). They also did
Entr'acte, a dadaist film with a score by Eric Satie, arranged for Clubfoot
by Steed Cowart, their conductor at the time. Clubfoot Orchestra went on
a couple of tours around parts of the USA, played at a New Music Festival
in New York City and I think also travelled to Europe for some performances.
The "orchestra" also would still occasionally do "club" gigs too, so
they'd hit the art-film circuit and the nightclub crowds in a city with very
different sets of music.
 
The orchestra has gone through a lot of flux and a number of performers over
the years. Other than Richard the other core member over time appears to be
Beth Custer. She and other members have started to get more involved in
composing pieces for the group now. I think they did a soundtrack for Fritz
Lang's Metropolis too.
 
Two ex-members of Clubfoot of the Caligari/Noseratu band lineup, Dave Barrett 
(sax) and Gino Robair (drums), are teamed in jazz/rock/improv trio with Myles
Boisen on guitar and bass, as The Splatter Trio.  They have two releases out 
and have toured parts of the US in the last year or two. Gino also drums
with The Potato Eaters, headed by bassist Ben Guy from Snakefinger's band.

Clubfoot has copies of the Nosferatu and Caligari film on video with their
soundtracks, and they've also got a few releases available on lp and maybe
cd. You should be able to buy this material through Ralph/TEC Tones records,
who can be reached at:
 
TEC Tones
P.O. Box 1477
Hoboken, NJ  07030
 
Phone 201/420-0238, Fax 201/420-6494
 
 - malcolm@wrs.com

P.S. I probably spelled Richard Marriot's name wrong - it may be Marriott. 
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies