Go West: Music for the Films of Buster Keaton is the sixth album by Bill Frisell

Bill Frisell

William Richard "Bill" Frisell is an American guitarist and composer.One of the leading guitarists in jazz since the late 1980s, Frisell's eclectic music touches on progressive folk, classical music, country music, noise and more...

 to be released on the Elektra Nonesuch

Nonesuch Records

Nonesuch Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Records.-Company history:Nonesuch was founded in 1964 by Jac Holzman to produce "fine records at the same price as a trade paperback", which would be half the price of a normal LP...

 label. It was released in 1995 and features performances by Frisell, Kermit Driscoll

Kermit Driscoll

Kermit Driscoll is a New York City jazz bassist perhaps best known for his long association with guitarist Bill Frisell. He was born in Kearney, Nebraska....

 and Joey Baron

Joey Baron

Joey Baron is an American avant-garde jazz drummer probably best known for his work with Bill Frisell, Stan Getz, Steve Kuhn, and John Zorn...

. The album is designed as accompaniment to the Buster Keaton

Buster Keaton

Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...

's silent film

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 classic, Go West

Go West (1925 film)

Go West is a silent movie starring Buster Keaton.Keaton portrays Friendless, who travels west to try to make his fortune. Once there, he tries his hand at bronco-busting, cattle wrangling, and dairy farming, eventually forming a bond with a cow named "Brown Eyes." Eventually he finds himself...

(1925), and was released at the same time as another album of Keaton soundtracks, The High Sign/One Week

The High Sign/One Week

The High Sign/One Week: Music for the Films of Buster Keaton is the seventh album by Bill Frisell to be released on the Elektra Nonesuch label. It was released in 1995 and features performances by Frisell, Kermit Driscoll and Joey Baron...

(1995).

Reception

The Allmusic review by JT Griffith awarded the album 4 stars stating "Go West is a Buster Keaton classic often compared to the Charlie Chaplin classics. The story follows a down-and-out Midwesterner following Horace Greeley's adage "Go West, young man!" Classic hilarity in this film includes a milking scene and a card game. (Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle makes an in-drag cameo.) The original soundtrack recording also includes Kermit Driscoll on acoustic and electric basses and Joey Barron on percussion. Frisell and his band performed the music to all three films at St. Ann's in Brookly, NY, in May of 1993. The warmly recorded albums are adventurous and evocative. Critics described Bill Frisell's inspired episodic work with Keaton's films as "deceptively modest" and "melancholy Americana. These rich narrative accompaniments are essential for students of cinema music and evangelists of the power of the score to enrich and enlighten visual art. The group also wrote an original score to the Keaton films High Sign and One Week.".

Track listing

1. "Down on Luck" - 4:11
2. "Box Car" - 0:57
3. "Busy Street Scene" - 0:44
4. "Go West" - 1:00
5. "Train" - 3:06
6. "Brown Eyes" - 4:21
7. "Saddle Up!" - 2:41
8. "First Aid" - 0:51
9. "Bullfight" - 2:25
10. "Wolves" - 3:14
11. "New Day" - 5:27
12. "Branded" - 1:20
13. "Eats" - 1:13
14. "Splinter Scene" - 2:33
15. "Cattle Drive" - 4:36
16. "Card Game" - 5:03
17. "Ambush" - 4:02
18. "Passing Through Pasadena" - 1:52
19. "To The Streets" - 3:11
20. "Tap Dancer and Confusion" - 6:42
21. "Devil Suit" - 2:08
22. "Cops and Fireman" - 3:58
23. "That a Boy" - 1:31
24. "I Want Her" - 2:13

All compositions by Bill Frisell

• Recorded at Möbius Music, San Francisco 1995

Personnel

• Bill Frisell
  Bill Frisell
  William Richard "Bill" Frisell is an American guitarist and composer.One of the leading guitarists in jazz since the late 1980s, Frisell's eclectic music touches on progressive folk, classical music, country music, noise and more...
  
   - acoustic and electric guitars
• Kermit Driscoll
  Kermit Driscoll
  Kermit Driscoll is a New York City jazz bassist perhaps best known for his long association with guitarist Bill Frisell. He was born in Kearney, Nebraska....
  
   - acoustic and electric basses
• Joey Baron
  Joey Baron
  Joey Baron is an American avant-garde jazz drummer probably best known for his work with Bill Frisell, Stan Getz, Steve Kuhn, and John Zorn...
  
  - drums and percussion