Phillip Johnston

The twisted avant-jazz of Phillip Johnston first reared its head through the early ’80s, when the composer and saxophonist was a staple from the downtown NEW YORK underground music scene. There, he performed with a number of performers both in and from the jazz community, included in this John Zorn, Eugene Chadbourne, Elliott Clear, Wayne Horvitz, Butch Morris, as well as the dB’s. He’s a founding person in the Microscopic Septet and, following its demise, continued to business lead Phillip Johnston’s Big Difficulty and Phillip Johnston’s Transparent Quartet. Furthermore to commissioned functions together with several theatrical and dance productions, Johnston gained notoriety for his eclectic film function, scoring images by directors including Doris Dorrie, Philip Haas, and Paul Mazursky. Following 1992 break up of his group the Microscopic Septet, he shortly resurfaced fronting the music group Big Difficulty, debuting using a self-titled LP for the Dark Saint label. After credit scoring the film noir The Unidentified, Johnston and Big Difficulty came back in 1996 with Overflow on the Ant Plantation; Normalology implemented a year later on. In 1998, Johnston loved a launch on Zorn’s Tzadik label, Music for Movies, and a launch on Koch along with his recently created Transparent Quartet, The Needless Kiss. The group discovers Johnston with tuba participant and bassist Dave Hofstra, pianist/baritone saxophonist Joe Ruddick, and vibraphonist Tag Josefberg. The music group adopted up their debut using the Merry Frolics of Satan: The Georges Meiles Task in 1999.