Jazz Soundtracks — Part 6

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

The jazzy surf movie soundtrack Gone with the Wave (1965) is a West Coast-style session featuring seasoned players such as Shelly Manne (drums), Paul Horn (saxophone and flute) and Howard Roberts (guitar), but this time the leader is none other than Hollywood composer Lalo Schifrin, who sits in on piano.

"A Taste of Bamboo" is one of the more imaginative tracks, with tuned percussion and piano ringing out an "oriental" melody over a quick, slippery groove of guitar trills. "Breaks" is a bit more conventional, but grooves even harder, with Manne's drums crashing like waves behind Roberts' nimble fretwork, Schifrin's chomping piano chords and Horn's liquid sax solo. "Aqua Blues is another up-tempo ride that wouldn't sound out of place on Schifrin's Bullitt soundtrack (1968). Another highlight is "Breaks Bossa Nova," an outstanding showcase for the soloists, this time working it out over a sweet Latin groove."

Dave Douglas: Pushing Jazz Forward

Dave Douglas is among the few jazz musicians today who truly pushes the boundaries of the genre. Working almost two decades now as a leader, the trumpeter has crafted radically different albums with each outing. All of which have been excellent. He in no way sounds like his predecessors (Miles, Hubbard, Brown, etc.) but has uniquely stepped into the realm with ease.

He has weaved together tin pan alley, bebop, fusion and avant garde every step of the way. There are many new musicians on the scene today but few are pushing jazz forward. Dave Douglas is one that has and continues to be consistent and reliable on every record.

The following are good starting points if you are interested and very easy to find at record stores and online:

1) Convergence (Soul Note Records): A fairly straight ahead session featuring his best quintet of Mark Feldman (violin), Drew Gress (bass), Erik Friedlander (cello), and Michael Sarin (drums).

2) Soul On Soul (Bluebird/BMG): A tribute to the legendary pianist/composer Mary Lou Williams featuring an all star ensemble which included Joshua Redman, Uri Caine, Joey Baron and more.

3) Freak In (Bluebird/BMG): This you could loosely call Douglas' "Bitches Brew" or "Jack Johnson". It is that fusion of jazz and electronics that you actually want and expect a forward thinking musician to create. A stellar recording.

So if you see these recordings, try them out - you won't be sorry. If you see Dave Douglas coming to your city. Go and take friends.

Until next time.

Jazz Soundtracks — Part 5

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

Perhaps the ultimate funky crime jazz soundtrack is David Shire’s The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974). It has no love themes or lounge numbers to slow it down, just a relentlessly hard-driving, take-no-prisoners score. Shire set out to crate a sound that would be “New York jazz-oriented, hard-edged” but with a “wise-cracking subtext to it.” He turned to the 12-tone method of composition, which Arnold Schoenberg developed decades earlier. (The disconcerting angularity of the Austrian’s compositions occasionally caused fistfights between the audience and the musicians.)

Something so naturally tense definitely fit the bill for this gritty, unsentimental drama about a hostage situation on a subway train. The music is diabolically calculated and pulsating, yet swings like a big band in hell. Electric bass, drums and tons of percussion provide the undercurrent for abstract horn, string, guitar, woodwind and keyboard lines. The theme gets restated again and again, but with such relentless variety it never becomes stale, only more intense.

Jazz Soundtracks — Part 4

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

Undisputed jazz genius scored in Hollywood. Duke Ellington — arguably the most influential composer and bandleader of the big band era — contributed a Grammy Award-winning score for Anatomy of a Murder (’59). Although Ellington had occasionally composed music to low budget musicals and short films prior to WWII, this courtroom drama offered him a unique opportunity. The music — with its rich harmonic shadings and intuitive use of soloists — is unlike any other crime jazz soundtrack, and many of the individual tracks would not sound out of place on other Ellington records of that period.

To his credit Ellington provided the requisite array of moods and variations on theme to complement the film’s characters and scenes, rather than merely recording variations of pre-existing music, to which he fittingly resorted for Paris Blues a year later.

Miles Davis, another jazz iconoclast, also scored in the crime genre — this time in Europe. Considering the immense popularity of jazz in France during the period, it comes as no surprise that filmmaker Louis Malle wanted to have an American jazzman provide music for his thriller Ascenseur pour l’échafaud (Lift to the Scaffold, ’58). Unlike most film music, Davis’ score was improvised in the studio. According to the soundtrack CD booklet notes, it was an informal gig for the trumpet player and his mostly French sidemen; in fact, the film’s star Jeanne Moreau played bartender in the studio while Malle screened selected scenes to the musicians. A rookie to the soundtrack game, Davis took little to no control over the selection of final takes for the film, letting Malle call the shots. Davis used a few tracks on his Jazz Track LP.