CD1
Miles Davis - Ascenseur pour l'échafaud
1. Générique
2. L'Assassinat de Carala
3. Sur l'autoroute
4. Julien dans l'ascenseur
5. Florence sur les Champs-Elysées
6. Diner au motel
7. Evasion de Julien
8. Visite du vigile
9. Au bar du petit bac
10. Chez le photographe du motel
CD2
Duke Ellington - Anatomy of a Murder
1. Main Title
2.Flirtibird
3. Way Early Subtone
4. Hero to Zero
5. Low Key Lightly
6. Happy Anatomy (Band-Movie version)
7. Midnight Indigo
8. Almost Cried
9. Sunswept Sunday
10. Grace Valse
11. Happy Anatomy
12. Upper and Outest
CD3
Art Blakey - Dess femmes diparaissant
1. Générique
2. Pierre et Béatrice
3. Nasol
4. Tom poursuit dans la ruelle
5. Ne chuchote Pas
6. Mambo dans la voiture
7. Merlin
8. Juste pour eux seuls
9. Blues pour Doudou
10. Blues pour Marcel
11. Blues pour Vava
12. Pasquier
13. Quaglio
14. La divorcée de Léo Fall
15. Suspense, Tom et Nasol
16. Des femmes disparaissent
17. Final pour Pierre et Béatrice
CD4
Chico Hamiltron: Sweet Smell of Successs
1.Goodbye, Baby Blues
2. Cheek to Chico
3. Susan - The Sage
4. Sidney's Theme
5. Jonalah
6. Jam
7. Night Beat
8. Love Scene (Susan - The Sage)
9. Goodbye, Baby
10. Hunsecker Operates
11. Hot Dogs and Juice
12. Concerto of themes from "Sweet Smell of Success"
CD5
Gerry Mulligan - I Want to Live
1. Main title
2. Poker game
3. San Diego party
4. Henry leaves
5. Stakeout
6. Barbara Surrenders
7. Trio Convicted
6. Trip to Corona
9. Peg's Visit
10. Gas Chamber Unveiling
11. Nightmare sequence
12. Preparations for Execution
13. Letter Writing sSquence
14. The Last Mile
15. Death Scene
16. Black Nightgown
17. Night Watch
18. Frisco Club
19. Barbara's Theme
20. End Title
21 Theme from "I Want to Live"
22. Life is a Funny Thing
CD6
Dizzy Reece -Nowhere to Go
1. Main Title
2. The Escape and Chase
3. The Search
4. The Sunset Scene
Johnny Dankworth - The Criminal
5. Riverside Stomp
6. Freedom Walk
7. After the Party
8. Treasure Drive
CD7
Barney Wilen - Un témoin dans la ville
1. Témoin dans la ville
2. La pendaison
3. Mélodie pour les radio taxis
4. Poursuite et métro
5. Ambiance pourpre
6. Préméditation dans l'appartement
7. La vie n'est qu'une lutte
8. Complainte du chauffeur
9. Sur l'antenne
10. Blues de l'antenne
11. SOS Radio-Taxis
12. Final au jardin d'acclimatation
13. Blues de Memphis
Alain Goraguer - J'irai cracher sur vos tombres:
14. Générique
15. Theme d'amour
16. Theme de Liz
17. Blues de Memphis
19. Surprise partie au bord de l'eau
CD8
Duke Jordan - Les liaisons dangereuses
1. No Problem (No 1)
2. No Problem (No 2)
3. No Problem (No 3)
4. Jazz Vendor
5. Subway Inn
6. The Feeling Of Love (No 1)
7. The Feeling Of Love (No 2)
CD9
Mundell Lowe - Satan in High Heels
1. Satan in High Heels
2. Montage
3. Lost and Lonely
4. East Side Drive
5. Coffee Coffee
6. Lake in the Woods
7. From Mundy On
8. Long Knife
9. Blues for a Stripper
10. Pattern of Evil
CD10
Elmer Bernstein - The Man with the Golden Arm
1. Clark Street
2. Zosh
3. Frankie Machine
4. The Fix
5. Molly
6. Breakup
7. Sunday Morning
8. Desperation
9. Audition
10. The Cure
11. Finale
In the 1950s, film producers suddenly seem to have become aware that jazz would be a suitable backing for films about crime and the darker side of life. One of the earliest masifestations of this was Elmer Bernstein's score for the 1956 film The Man with the Golden Arm, in which Frank Sinatra played a drug addict going "cold turkey" to escape the effects of drugs. The theme tune became well-known and undoubtedly helped to publicise the film.
All but two of the film soundtracks in this ten-CD box set date from the late-1950s, which suggests how potent a force jazz quickly became for films in this short period. Another characteristic of this fashion is evident in this set; how European film-makers enthusiastically took up the trend, as five of the twelve films represented are French. Given the themes of the films, it is hardly surprising that much of the music is sombre or tragic. The music for The Man with the Golden Arm veers beween the ominously dramatic and the wistful.
1957 brought two classics of the genre: Miles Davis' Ascenseur
pour l'échafaud ("Lift to the Scaffold")
and Chico Hamilton's score for The Sweet Smell of Success.
The former is dominated by Miles' lonely trumpet and it benefits from
being played by a small group that included tenorist Barney Wilen
and drummer Kenny Clarke.. The music for Sweet Smell of Success
also benefited from a small group, led by Chico Hamilton and making
the best use of his idiosyncratic line-up of flute and reeds (Paul
Horn), cello, guitar, bass and drums. This added immeasurably to the
atmosphere of the story about a sycophantic New York agent (Tony Curtis)
trying with increasing desperation to please an amoral columnist (Burt
Lancaster).
1958 gave us I Want to Live, the Susan Hayward film with
a Johnny Mandel score performed by Gerry Mulligan leading some top-class
West-Coast musicians in some stinging perforformances. The same year
brought London-based Jamaican trumpeter Dizzy Reece performing a few
numbers from, Nowhere to Go, which has been put onto one
CD with Johnny Danwkorth's music for 1960's The Criminial.
Two Fench film scores from 1959 also appear on one CD: Barney Wilen's
Un témoin dans la ville and Alain Garaguer's
J'irai cracher sur vos tombres.
Two important jazz scores brightened 1959 releases: Duke Ellington's for Anatomy of a Murder and Art Blakey's for Des femmes disparaissant. The Ellington music was somewhat submerged by Otto Preninger's film but Blakey's music virtually escaped uscathed.
Mundell's Lowe score for Satan in High Heels is sophisticated big band and it takes us into 1962, when the fashion for jazz music on films seemed to diminish. It is a pity that this collection could not include some iportant movie scores, such as All Night Long (1961) and Duke Ellington's Paris Blues from the same year - my favourite of all film scores because the music was so closely woven into the story. In fact several of the CDs in this collection could have accommodated more . After all, CD6 contains only 24 minutes of music, CD7 has 27 minutes, and CD8 includes barely 40 munutes.
However, this is a useful collection of some albums which may be difficult to obtain separately nowadays, and the compilation highlights the outburst iof jazz on film in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Tony Augarde
www.augardebooks.co.uk
CD Reviews
Intense Media 600005
