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Jay Brown, who we all know and love, will be pairing music to silent Charlie Chaplin films! Here’s a note from Jay, introducing the evening…

So, I first got the idea of playing piano for Chaplin films while on a tour with The Appalucians in California. One of the home bases for us out there is a quaint little town called Niles, just south of San Francisco, which happens to home to the Silent Film Museum. Niles is where Chaplin made his first movies, including The Tramp. It’s a great museum, and they show classic silent films on the weekend with live piano music, and I thought, hey I’d sure love to have that gig!

I started focusing on this, maybe you’d say obsessing, working harder on the old ragtime, began taking off the piano training wheels. And then out of the blue I get a call from Mark Freed who curates music for the town of Boone, who says “Hey, I had this crazy idea, but any chance you’d want to play piano for some silent films for the Boonerang festival?” With that kismet, I had my first opportunity. My approach has been to watch the films, get them into my heart and mind, and then as I go through the Joplin repertoire, certain sections will speak to me for specific scenes. I think Joplin works so well for Chaplin because both are suffused with some sadness along with the playfulness.