Phillip Johnston

Phillip Johnston's twisted avant-jazz first surfaced in the early '80s. As both composer and saxophonist he quickly became a fixture in downtown New York City's underground music circles, where he collaborated across and beyond jazz circles with John Zorn, Eugene Chadbourne, Elliott Sharp, Wayne Horvitz, Butch Morris, and the dB's. A founding member of the Microscopic Septet, he formed Phillip Johnston's Big Trouble and Phillip Johnston's Transparent Quartet once that ensemble disbanded.

Alongside commissions for various theatrical and dance productions, he gained recognition through his wide-ranging film scores for directors such as Doris Dorrie, Philip Haas, and Paul Mazursky. After the Microscopic Septet dissolved in 1992 he reemerged leading Big Trouble, whose self-titled debut appeared on the Black Saint imprint. Having scored the film noir The Unknown, Johnston and Big Trouble issued Flood at the Ant Farm in 1996; Normalology arrived the following year.

During 1998 he released Music for Films on Zorn's Tzadik label while the newly assembled Transparent Quartet debuted on Koch with The Needless Kiss, featuring tuba player and bassist Dave Hofstra, pianist and baritone saxophonist Joe Ruddick, and vibraphonist Mark Josefberg. The quartet's follow-up, The Merry Frolics of Satan: The Georges Meiles Project, came out in 1999.