Who did the music for this flic? I seem to recall from an old Modern Jazz Quartet album, John Lewis mentioning that the group did the soundtrack. Is that so, or is my memeory playing ticks on me. If so another reason to get this on DVD!
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it is true and it was one of the first films to have a full jazz score.
shareYes indeed, it was John Lewis and the MJQ, and in fact I am playing a copy of the soundtrack cd as I type. I have not actually seen the film and was investigating it on imdb.
It's a good album (though not as good as another MJQ soundtrack for the 1957 movie "Sait-on jamais.." aka "No Sun In Venice" which is superb! The MJQ soundtrack I mean, I haven't seen *that* film either.
Both cds should be easily available from Amazon, if not ebay.
Here is the listing for the complete soundtrack for this movie from amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000008J34/sr=1-1/qid=1195496629/ref= olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1195496629&sr=1-1& seller=
Just saw this for the first time on TCM a couple of nights ago. I've owned the Modern Jazz Quartet album of this music for years, and always assumed that it was the score to the movie, so I was very surprised to hear an orchestra and an electric guitar on the movie soundtrack.
It turns out that there are 2 different recordings of John Lewis' score for this movie. The actual soundtrack album is the one linked above, and was recorded by members of the MJQ (Milt Jackson vibes, Percy Heath bass, Connie Kay drums) as well as Bill Evans on piano, Jim Hall on electric guitar, Joe Wilder on trumpet, and a studio orchestra. The album I have, which is better known and was a much bigger seller at the time, is played by just the MJQ (John Lewis piano, with Jackson, Heath, and Kay) and is actually called "Music From Odds Against Tomorrow." Having seen the movie - where the music works brilliantly IMO - I will now have to seek out a copy of the actual soundtrack recording somewhere.
Incidentally, the female singer in the nightclub scene is Mae Barnes, who was in the 1923 Broadway show Runnin' Wild that introduced the Charleston, and was a mainstay of NYC nightlife and high society parties for many years. Don't know who is in the band behind her and Belafonte though. They don't look like the MJQ.
The music was pretty cheesy. By this time, jazz just sounds like a died out copy of itself. It sounds nearly like those drab 60s tv shows, far removed from the classic 30s-40s.
Pretty cheesy and a died out copy of itself - my sentiments entirely. Pity they couldn't have got Roy Webb to do it.
shareCheesy and "died out copy of itself" is a lot of people's description of the Modern Jazz Quartet. I don't feel that strongly about them, but don't care much for them nonetheless. With respect to the music in the film, a few times I found it distracting and absurd.
shareLol.. I felt the same way, more or less. I really can't bother with modern jazz. I'm sure there has to be some decent stuff out there, but there's an awful lot of bad stuff to sift through and I'd rather just spend time listening to the 30s, when mood and creativity were at a high, anyway.
Well, of course, you are entitled to your opinion. I thought the music was great. To me it lifted the movie from "very good" to "essential".
shareI kept thinking the music was done by the same musician as Arthur Penn's "Night Moves."
It wasn't, in fact "Night Moves" has a less intrusive, but to me, more musical score.
If you even semi-liked this soundtrack, check out the one for "night Moves" and see if you also like it better.
It's a great Gene Hackman private-eye whodunit... in fact, it's a who done what and even who's doin' whom?