This compilation, thankfully, pulls in more than the interminable Bond themes
with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra jazzing up many themes for not only movie
heroes like Bond, Shaft, and those Untouchables but many good
guys from TV like Perry Mason, Peter Gunn and the Mission Impossible
guys.
Kunzel pulls all the stops out, his big band vividly colouring racy themes
from Goldfinger, Beverly Hills Cop, Shaft and Michael Kamen's
Lethal Weapon; more noble heroic material like Enio Morricone's The
Untouchables and the Danny Elfman's deliciously quirky dark music for Darkman
and Dick Tracy. Jerry Goldsmith's 'It's a long road' from Rambo
mixes lazy style western material with explosive action stuff.
There is an emphasis on arrangements of James Bond theme songs: From Russia
with Love; Live and let Die; 'Nobody Does it Better' from The
Spy Who Loved Me and 'All Time High' from Octopussy. Whatever relaxation
there is from the relentlessly high spirits and hectic pace of the music comes
in these arrangements.
One track is a 'Medley of Adventure Themes' in hectic arrangements that are
exciting enough but they may not appeal to the purists.
High spirited, big jazz arrangements of many well-loved movie and TV action
themes.
Ian Lace