Today, we have something different for Music Video Monday. Alex Greene is not only the Memphis Flyer‘s Managing Editor, he’s also an extremely talented and prolific musician and composer. One of his many projects is the Rolling Head Orchestra, a hybrid jazz/classical group specializing in film scoring. Last November, they performed Greene’s live score for Memphis music and art provocateur Tav Falco’s film The Urania Trilogy.
“Falco’s semi-silent film of espionage, passion, and tango was perfectly suited to be the seventh live score performed by the RHO, who have specialized in playing original scores for films from Keaton to Garbo since 2020. And while some of the music embedded in Falco’s master print of the film remained, his special mix for this performance, removing most of the ‘official’ soundtrack, allowed the RHO free rein to enhance the action with their own sounds,” says Greene.
“As always, the uniquely gifted theremin player Kate Tayler made the trip from Florence, Alabama, to join me, Jim Spake, Marc Franklin, Tom Lonardo, Jim Duckworth, and Ben Walsh in the Rolling Head Orchestra. Spake and Franklin have been in the group for all 17 years of our existence, with the others joining gradually in the years since, and we share the unique bond of loving the whole spectrum of twentieth century music, from pre-war jazz to exotica to the avant-garde. All styles inform our approach to cinematic scores.”
Greene and Falco go way back, having played together since the early days of Memphis punk rock. “Both Jim Duckworth and I played in Tav Falco’s Panther Burns over the years, but my moody compositions are from a different time and place altogether. If anything, the gonzo, DIY Panther Burns spirit lives on largely in Falco’s sui generis, hand-processed 16mm film, exploring myth, memory, and identity through dreamlike cinematography by the photographer Richard Pleuger. Pleuger, who studied under both Nam June Paik and George Kuchar, brings a classicism to the austere black and white footage that seems to place the events of the film outside of history.”
Now, the Memphis Library has made the recording of the performance available in its Digital Archive.
“The Byzantine tale of espionage, tango, and Nazi treasure is perfectly matched by the
mid-century crime jazz and Old World melodies of my compositions and the virtuosos of the RHO, even as Tayler’s theremin brings archaic sounds of a bygone ‘futurism’ that
dovetails perfectly with the film’s surreal, Dick Tracy-like blend of intrigue and farce. All in all, it’s the perfect collaboration between myself and Falco, two artists who’ve been indelibly stamped by Memphis in very different ways.”
If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
