On February 21, 2025, I accompanied the 1926 film The Flying Ace at the Plaistow, NH Library. This YouTube video combines an MP4 file of the film with the audio recording of my live accompaniment on a Roland keyboard, with about four minutes of introductory remarks by librarian Jennifer O’Connor, who does a great job making these movies happen, and by me.
The next movie I’ll accompany there will be Peter Pan on April 11.
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On Friday, February 21, at 1:00 PM, I’ll accompany the silent film The Flying Ace at the Plaistow, NH Library. Admission is free. My plan is to record the accompaniment and combine it with the movie in a YouTube video, if no technical problems arise.
I chose this movie for Black History Month. In the silent era and for some time afterward, black actors couldn’t hope for leading roles in mainstream movies. Some studios produced “race films” — movies with black casts for black audiences. One of them was Norman Studios in Florida. As far as I know, the only film from it which is still available is The Flying Ace, released in 1926.
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Another silent Felix the Cat cartoon with my accompaniment, Felix in Hollywood, is up on my YouTube channel. This one is one of my entries in February Album Writing Month (FAWM), a challenge to write 14 songs in 28 days. “Song” is broadly defined and can include (as in this case) instrumental improvisation to accompany a movie.
Stan Laurel was a well-known silent film actor before he teamed up with Oliver Hardy. I’ve uploaded his 1925 film, Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde, to YouTube with my accompaniment. The two-reel comedy plays off two earlier Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde films, both released in 1920. In this version, Laurel’s character turns into a prankster rather than a real menace. He escapes from the angry crowd by returning to Jekyll’s lab and drinking the reversing potion, but his supply is limited.
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My latest silent film upload with my accompaniment is the 1920 The Mark of Zorro, starring Douglas Fairbanks. It’s one of the most libertarian films of the silent era, presenting a masked hero who fights against oppressive rulers in Spanish California. He wears a mask, appears when he is most needed, and has a secret identity as a rich but timid caballero. It’s obvious that he was part of the inspiration for Batman. The film was Fairbanks’ first role starring as an action hero.
As usual, the accompaniment is my improvised music, played on a Roland EX-50. For this movie, I wanted to sound a bit Mexican, so I did some research. It led to a wonderful discovery: the Spanish scale, which oddly enough is also the Jewish scale. The common source is the Sephardi Jews of the Middle Ages. I started noodling in that scale and, olé! It’s a tricky scale to use when creating harmonies; there’s no proper dominant chord. With some practice, I was able to weave between major, minor, and Spanish modes. Also, I tried to sound like a guitar in some scenes, as if I were a storyteller accompanying myself.
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