Enjoy the Vu

Silents are golden: From left, Stomu
Takeishi, Cuong Vu and Ted Poor will perform a new score for a 1925
D.W. Griffith film classic on Saturday at Eastwood’s Palace Theater.

Vu, best known as a sideman to Grammy-winning jazz guitarist Pat Metheny, hesitates to deem the piece he’ll unfurl as a true-blue score:
“I’ll have some composed themes that we’ll state and reference at
certain points, and we’ll connect them over the course of the movie,”
says Vu, 39. The rest will be completely improvised, in the
old-fashioned jazz trio sense: on the fly, mistakes allowed (but not
likely), swinging as hard as can be done in the dark and at the foot of
a giant movie screen. 

James Emery’s accompaniment of the 1924 Buster Keaton comedy Sherlock Jr. in 2007, as well as James Carney’s concomitance with director Edward Sloman’s 1925 drama His People
the year before, re-thought ideas of what scores can be, in comparison
to the old Hollywood model of punctilious scene-syncing in soundproof
booths. Vu’s instructions from Larry Luttinger, of project collaborators the Central New York Jazz Arts Foundation,
were of similar spirit: “It was made clear from the start that this is
not a ‘scoring’ project per se,” says Vu. “{Luttinger} feels that
juxtaposing modern music with a classic silent movie, although
seemingly disparate, has and will work very well.” 

“If the audience goes into it with an
open mind and heart, they’ll experience something that might be
otherworldly and pleasantly odd—but not awkward,” he adds. No jabbing
murder-scene music for a screen kiss, in other words. But nothing quite
as obvious as a “Gonna Fly Now” ascent up the courthouse steps. 

Probably the best reference point for what’s up Vu’s sleeve is his jazz output. Bassist Stomu Takeishi and drummer Ted Poor, who will round out the trio Saturday night, shift from sidling grooves to spurning melodic jabs

on Vu’s 2007 outing Vu-tet
(ArtistShare). The leader plies a bit of Metheny’s thrum-and-sustain
style and pensive-leaning composition sense with blow-to-burn brass
chops, which he strings arc-wise over the proceedings. “It’s going to
be the sound of my trio and our language,” Vu assures. 

But unlike a regular gig, their music
will concede the spotlight, if not quite humble itself, for the benefit
of Griffith’s pre-Depression gem. “It’s our aim to give the film a
flavor that people wouldn’t expect,” says Vu, “and perhaps give it a
much different meaning and perspective in a more abstract way—as much
of modern art aims to do.” 

Admission is $15; students and seniors
get in for $12. For more information, call 443-8826 or visit
www.palacetheatresyracuse.com or www.syrfilm.com.