The Clown School Dropouts are
an incredibly unorthodox instrumental musical duo featuring Cranky (Frank
Turek) on saxophones and hornucopia, and Moishe (Michael Dank)
on old junky old drum kit, bike horns, cap gun, slide whistle and about
a dozen other things to hit with a stick. You can easily hear the influences
of klezmer and 30's jazz but in our way of tweaking this genre we've had
to coin the terms Circus Jazz and Avant Schmaltz in order
to capture the musically savvy silliness, carnivalesque extravagance and
sly wit.
We've been playing regularly in Portland, Maine since February 2000 and
have a regular gig opening for Straight Up! with Chicky Stoltz at the Skinny every last Sunday of every
month. (See our Performance Schedule Page for full list of our outings.)
If you really want to track down Cranky follow this link:
Cranky's art persona: Frank Turek
