David Byrne – Music For The Knee Plays

'Music For The Knee Plays' is a series of rhythmic brass-oriented vignettes and lyrics by David Byrne, 'jointing' an eight-hour choreographic work, based upon Robert Wilson's concept "The Civil Wars". This work was originally intended to be performed at the LA Olympic Arts Festival but, due to the length of the work, only certain sections were performed there. The entire piece consists of fifteen central scenes within five acts and was broadly staged in its complete form at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, April 1984.

Wilson initiated this concept of inter-plays in 1976 in his partnership with the Philip Glass Ensemble on the operatic work "Einstein On The Beach", within which the preludes, interludes and post-ludes could be 'run together', thus forming a play or structured work in itself. The Byrne partnership with Wilson began after Wilson heard a tape of Byrne's score for Twyla Tharp's "Catherine Wheel", whilst Byrne was already inspired by Wilson's work on both "Einstein" and the Broadway spectacle "A Letter To Queen Victoria".

The seeds of Byrne's work on "The Knee Plays" began in Tokyo with choreographer Suzushi Hanayagi and set-designer Jun Matsuno. The rhythmic backbone to the pieces began life as Kabuki-style drumming in a minimalist stage setting, akin to a Noh drama. However, with a typically inspired Byrne twist, influenced by the repetitive New-Orleans funk-beat of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, he traded Japanese drum rhythms for Dixieland brass beats. The pieces were shaped around a series of captioned drawings provided by Wilson, an example of which can be seen on the cover as "A tree is best measured when it is down".

Stripped of its third dimension of dance and synchronized movement "Music For The Knee Plays" is an album that takes on an almost hypnotic life of its own, with the repetitive patterns of Byrne's astute spoken lyrics cutting through a melodic kaleidoscope of shifting brass and bass-drum rhythms. A work that would not be out of place at an upbeat and funky New Orleans-style funeral in the orderly street bustle of Japan. The CD issue, simply titled "The Knee Plays", has some tracks from the vinyl retitled and contains eight bonus tracks together with a DVD soundtrack slideshow of photographs from the earlier performance.