The World of Library Music

What the heck is library music?

You've probably heard the term in recent years, perhaps used by that music collector friend of yours who has a taste for obscure grooves. Here's what he'd probably tell you about the genre.

Originally conceived to accompany film, TV and radio productions, library music (aka sound library, program music or music for hire) represents the missing link between soundtracks and diverse styles such as jazz, funk and rock, not to mention orchestral and electronic avant-garde.

Library music isn't new. It's been around since the dawn of the music industry, filling a need created by movies, radio and television programming. Whether you're talking about WWII newsreels and old time radio shows or TV news and car commercials, library music has been (and continues to be) used to create atmosphere and excitement when original scoring is unavailable.

Most of the library music available on CD (and LP) today comes from the '60s and '70s -- the heyday of jazzy, funky, rock-influenced grooves as well as atmospheric orchestral and electronic atmospheres. That said, there still are library labels churning out music in a variety of contemporary styles that you've probably heard in such disparate contexts as video games and porno DVDs (I know, I know, you don't watch porno ;-)

The most collectible library albums and compilations collect the work of talented session musicians such as Syd Dale, Nick Ingman, Peter Reno, Nino Nardini, Johnny Hawksworth, Eddie Warner and many others for such labels as KPM, De Wolfe, Chappell, Selected Sound, Bosworth, Bruton and on and on. Many of these labels are based in the UK, France, Germany and Italy. The originals go for big bucks, which makes the CD compilations very attractive indeed.

There are even contemporary recording artists such as Shawn Lee and Clutchy Hopkins whose records are clearly inspired by classic library music of the funky, psychedelic era.

Once you start collecting library music you may find it hard to stop, because the quality of the musicianship is outstanding and the creativity of some (but not all) recordings is astonishing (especially from the late '60s and early '70s). While some library music does have a generic quality, there is plenty that distinguishes itself. If you consider yourself musically adventurous, you owe it to yourself to explore the genre.

Read more about library music available on CD.

Jazz Soundtracks - Part 3

The following is an excerpt from the book Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979 (McFarland, 2008) by Kristopher Spencer, founder of Scorebaby.com.

While many crime scores barely qualify as genuine jazz, there are a handful from the era that come closer than most. One of the best belongs to I Want to Live! (’58), a true story about a murderess on death row. Johnny Mandel’s sexy smoky score is a classic. The 26-piece All-Star Jazz Orchestra burn through the main theme, “Poker Game,” “Stakeout” and “Gas Chamber Unveiling” and other hot-blooded and emotionally wrenching tracks. Also featured are half a dozen cuts played by Gerry Mulligan’s Combo.

The legendary baritone saxophonist leads veteran jazz greats such as Shelly Manne (drums), Art Farmer (trumpet), Bud Shank (alto sax, flute) and Red Mitchell (bass), Frank Rosolino (trombone) and Pete Jolly (piano) on “Night Watch” and “Black Nightgown.” Mulligan’s inclusion is significant. The original LP cover notes by William Johns describe how the film’s main character “moves through an atmosphere in San Francisco and San Diego where jazz hovers constantly in the background. One of the few stabilizing things in her life is her interest in jazz and, particularly, in the music of Gerry Mulligan.” Mandel penned the tracks specifically for Mulligan’s group, and they’re peppered throughout the film as source cues.

“We'd been through a lot of bands together,” Mandel said of Mulligan in a 1998 interview with Patrick McGilligan for the Rykodisc reissue. “I first ran into Gerry when he was with Gene Krupa and I was with Buddy Rich. This was in ’46. ‘Disk Jockey Jump’ had just come out and somehow Mulligan and I … were thrown together in the New York nightclub and session scene. We remained good friends, right to the end.”

The bits composed for the larger group are highly experimental and were daring for the era. Among the unusual instruments employed are contra-bass clarinet, contra bassoon, bass trumpet, bass flute, and E-flat clarinet. In addition, there is a wild assortment of percussion such as scratcher, cowbells, Chinese and Burmese gongs, rhythm logs, chromatic drums and claves as well as bongos and conga drums — collectively representing “the forces of law and order always hovering in the background,” as McGilligan observed.

More importantly, I Want to Live stands apart from most crime jazz scores in that it is genuine jazz featuring improvisation and not merely “scripted” jazz.

“I was really very nervous,” Mandel told McGilligan, “until I realized, after I learned the language and how to sync everything, that essentially it is what I’d been doing for a long time and just didn’t know it. It married all the things I’d been doing previously.”

Mandel went on to win an Oscar for “The Shadow of Your Smile” from The Sandpiper and scored many other popular movies, but his boldly inventive I Want to Live is among the best of the crime genre and of the era.