*** Phillip Johnston Transparent Quartet

THE NEEDLESS KISS

(Koch Jazz)

Johnston's claim to fame was the apparently quirky, lovable Microscopic Septet. He also has a flair for movie music, and this drummerless chamber group prove themselves capable of going every which way. Mostly, Johnston is interested in the variety of voicings he can get out of soprano sax, vibes, piano, and bass. "Memory" is a suite-like dreamscape that opens with cinematic disembodied vibes and a Bach-like descending piano line before eventually evolving into cooking, straight-time jazz. "Plantella Rock" is like a vintage West Coast jazz outing, with alto and baritone (pianist Joe Ruddick doubles) bopping in unison. There's also a Chopin mazurka with a touch of the kind of oom-pah cabaret piano that probably inspired Chopin in the first place, and one of Raymond Scott's toy-like pieces, "The Sleepwalker." Given his playful, old-timy tunefulness, you could call Scott the presiding spirit here. Although Ruddick's "The Club" is very NPR.

-- Jon Garelick

(Philip Johnston's Transparent Quartet accompanies Teinosuke Kinugasa's 1926 silent film Page of Madness at MIT's Killian Hall in Hayden Memorial Library this Friday, February 26, at 8 p.m. Call 868-3172.)