The Club Foot Orchestra is a musical ensemble known for their

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

scores. Their influences include Eastern European

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has ...

impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passa ...

, and

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, amplifiers, and ke ...

; ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' described their style as "music that bubbles up from the intersection of aesthetics and the id." Their performance venues have included

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...

Symphony Space Symphony Space, founded by Isaiah Sheffer and Allan Miller, is a multi-disciplinary performing arts organization at 2537 Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Performances take place in the 760-seat Peter Jay Sharp Theatre (also called Pe ...

, the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Found ...

, the Winter Garden Atrium, the

SFJAZZ Center The SFJAZZ Center is an all-ages music venue in the Hayes Valley neighborhood of San Francisco, California, that opened in January 2013. It is considered the "first free-standing building in America built for jazz performance and education." It is ...

, and San Francisco's

Castro Theatre The Castro Theatre is a historic movie palace in San Francisco that became San Francisco Historic Landmark #100 in September 1976. Located at 429 Castro Street in the Castro District, it was built in 1922 with a California Churrigueresque fa� ...

, considered their home base.

History

In the 1980s, musician Richard Marriott lived above a

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

nightclub, the Club Foot, in Bayview, San Francisco; with Beth Custer, he founded a house band, the Club Foot Orchestra. On Ralph Records, the band released ''Wild Beasts'' and ''Kidnapped''. According to the band's website as of 2021, both Custer and Marriott still play with the ensemble, with Marriott also functioning as creative and artistic director.

Current members

* Beth Custer, clarinets, keyboard * Sheldon Brown, woodwinds * Chris Grady, trumpet * Richard Marriott, brass, woodwinds * Gino Robair, percussion * Will Bernard, guitar * Kymry Esainko, piano * Alisa Rose, violin * Sascha Jacobson, double bass * Deirdre McClure, conductor

Silent Film Scoring

The Club Foot Orchestra is known for their live accompaniment to

s, including features and shorts of widespread genres. The scores are written collaboratively, in a process they describe as "a fundamental element in their unique musical style." They also perform music in other genres, such as Custer's score for choreographer Joe Goode's ''Maverick Strain'' performance installation and Marriott's scores for

Della Davidson Mary Adele "Della" Davidson (1951/1952 – March 13, 2012) was an American modern dancer, choreographer, and dance professor at the University of California, Davis Department of Theatre and Dance. Life Mary Adele Davidson was born in Texas, but g ...

's ''Ten PM Dream'' and ''Eva Luna''. Marriott explained how they started writing for movies:

I became interested in doing something visually that further expressed the ideas behind the music; something that would help put the music in context. I considered projecting slides of experimental art on a screen behind us. Then a friend suggested, after catching our show: "The music is so cinematic, why don't you take outtakes of 1950s sitcoms and score them." I put it under my hat. Later that night I saw a
Lily Tomlin Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin (born September 1, 1939) is an American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and producer. She started her career as a stand-up comedian as well as performing off-Broadway during the 1960s. Her breakout role was on the varie ...
skit on Saturday Night Live. She was reading the Dow Jones averages of various art trends. She reported, "Pop art up 10... Op art up 20... Expressionism down 30." I turned the channel. And there was '' The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.'' The distorted sets and dreamlike atmosphere in the film were the qualities that I always envisioned accompanying our music. The subversive plot was drenched in the unconscious. I was obsessed to write for that film.

Marriott's score premiered at the 1987 Mill Valley Film Festival. After touring with ''Caligari'', Marriott wrote a score for the 1922

F. W. Murnau Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (born Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe; December 28, 1888March 11, 1931) was a German film director, producer and screenwriter. He was greatly influenced by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Shakespeare and Ibsen plays he had seen at th ...

horror classic ''

Nosferatu ''Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror'' (German: ''Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens'') is a 1922 silent German Expressionist horror film directed by F. W. Murnau and starring Max Schreck as Count Orlok, a vampire who preys on the wife ...

,'' with sections contributed by Gino Robair, introducing the period of collaborative composition. ''Nosferatu'' is a powerful and evocative score and proved equally successful with audiences, and led to an appearance at

New Music America New Music America was a nomadic American festival (held in Montreal during its last year) showcasing at its origins New York City's Downtown Music, but growing into one of the largest new music festivals ever held in North America, all in an atte ...

in New York City in 1989. Over the next 10 years, new scores for the films ''

Metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big c ...

,'' '' Sherlock Jr.,'' ''

Pandora's Box Pandora's box is an artifact in Greek mythology connected with the myth of Pandora in Hesiod's c. 700 B.C. poem ''Works and Days''. Hesiod reported that curiosity led her to open a container left in the care of her husband, thus releasing physi ...

'' and '' The Hands of Orlac'' were composed by the group and performed throughout the US, following their premieres at the Castro Theater. Many short subject films were also composed during this time.

Francis Lederer Francis Lederer (November 6, 1899 Prague – May 25, 2000) was an Austro-Hungarian Empire-born American film and stage actor with a successful career, first in Europe, then in the United States. His original name was Franz (Czech František) Le ...

, who played Alwa Schön in ''Pandora's Box'', attended a screening of that film in 1995 at the Nuart Theater in Los Angeles. Buster Keaton's wife Eleanor attended a screening of ''Sherlock Jr''. in 1993, and exclaimed, "Bravo Club Foot Orchestra! Buster would have loved your music." In 1999 a smaller version of the orchestra, along with

Gamelan Sekar Jaya Gamelan Sekar Jaya is a Balinese gamelan ensemble located in the San Francisco Bay Area. It has been called "the finest Balinese gamelan ensemble outside of Indonesia" by Indonesia's Tempo Magazine. It performs the music and dance of Bali in many ...

, performed with the film '' Legong: Dance of the Virgins,'' co-written by Marriott and Indonesian composer Made Subandi. More recently, the group has performed new scores for ''

Battleship Potemkin '' Battleship Potemkin'' (russian: Бронено́сец «Потёмкин», ''Bronenosets Potyomkin''), sometimes rendered as ''Battleship Potyomkin'', is a 1925 Soviet silent drama film produced by Mosfilm. Directed and co-written by S ...

,'' '' Phantom of the Opera,'' and ''Go West,'' in addition to Marriott's reworking of ''Metropolis'' to match the newly restored and much longer print. Three new Buster Keaton short-subject films (''

The Blacksmith ''The Blacksmith'' is a 1922 American short comedy film co-written, co-directed by and featuring Buster Keaton. Buster plays an assistant blacksmith to the big worker played by Joe Roberts, with predictable results. Cast * Buster Keaton as ...

'', '' One Week'', ''Cops'') were showcased in a Club Foot Orchestra retrospective hosted by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival at the Castro Theater in September 2018. The Club Foot Gamelan premiered a score for the silent Indonesian film ''Goona Goona'' at the 2019 San Francisco Silent Film Festival, featuring the Balinese virtuosos Nyoman Windha and Dewa Barata. In 2019 - 2020, the Club Foot Modern Machines has been performing yet another new score for Metropolis, this time featuring kinetic sound-producing sculptures created by Matt Heckert, Kal Spelletich, and Obtainium Works.

Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat

In 1995, The Club Foot Orchestra scored and recorded 39 episodes of the CBS cartoon series '' The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat,'' produced by FIlm Roman. Gino Robair produced the cartoon's soundtrack, which was recorded at Hyde Street Studios in San Francisco and later at Guerilla Euphonics in Oakland. All members of the group, which at the time included Myles Boisen, Matt Brubeck, Catherine Clune, Steve Kirk, Nik Phelps, and Elliot Kavee, wrote music for these episodes.

Film Scores (Features)

*'' The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'' (1987, Composer: Marriott) *''

'' (1989, Composers: Marriott, Robair) *''

'' (Moroder edit) (1991, Composers: Marriott, Kirk, Brown, Phelps, Boisen, Custer) *'' Sherlock Jr.'' (1992, Composers: Marriott, Boisen, Kirk, Brown, Custer, Phelps) *''

'' (1995, Composers: Marriott, Brown, Boisen, Brubeck, Kirk, Custer, Phelps, Kavee) *'' Hands of Orlac'' (1997, Composers: Marriott, Brown, Robair) *'' Legong Dance of the Virgins'' (1999, Composers: Marriott, Subandi) *''

'' (2005, Composer: Marriott) *'' Phantom of the Opera'' (2005, Composer: Marriott) *''

'' (Complete) (2013, Composer: Marriott) *'' Go West'' (2015, Composers: Marriott, Custer, Brown)

Film Scores (Shorts and Smaller Ensembles)

*''Entr'acte'' (1989, Composer: Satie; Arrangers: Cowart, McClure) *''Pool of Thanatos'' (1991, Composer: Custer) *''Felix the Cat Woos Whoopie'' (1992, Composer: Club Foot Orchestra) *''Koko Convict'' (1992, Composer: Kirk) *''How a Mosquito Operates'' (1992, Composer: Boisen) *''Cops'' (1993, Composers: Kirk, Brown, Boisen) *''The Idea'' (1993, Composer: Phelps) *''Steamboat Bill'' (2011, Composer: Marriott) *''The Golem'' (2011, Composers: Brown, Rose, Marriott) *''The Godless Girl'' (2011, Composer: Marriott) *''One Week'' (2018, Composer: Marriott) *''The Blacksmith'' (2018, Composer: Custer) *''Cops'' (new score) (2018, Composer: Brown) *''Goona Goona'' (2019, Composer: Marriott)

Discography

*''Wild Beasts'', 1986 (Vinyl), Ralph Records, San Francisco *''Kidnapped'', 1987 (Vinyl), Ralph Records, San Francisco *''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'', 1988 (Cassette/VHS), Ralph Records, San Francisco *''Nosferatu'', 1989 (Cassette/VHS), Ralph Records, San Francisco *''Metropolis'' (live recording), 1991 (CD), Heyday Records, San Francisco *''Kidnapped, Wild Beasts & More'', reissue 1995 (compilation CD), Rastascan *''Sherlock Jr. & Felix'' 1995 (CD), Rastascan *''Plays Nino Rota: Selections From la Dolce Vita, Amarcord, Nights of Cabiria, 8½'', Rastascan *''Nosferatu Live at the World Financial Center'' ''January 25, 2001'' (CD), Conceptual Noise, San Francisco *''Legong: Dance of the Virgins'', 2004 (DVD), Milestone, New York *''Legong: Dance of the Virgins'', Live Recording, 2013 (CD), Conceptual Noise, San Francisco

References

{{Authority control Musical groups established in 1983 Orchestras based in California