Of the scores listed, I've heard of most of them, know the music from three of them and have seen two of them. Those that I've seen are Austin Powers and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, so you can probably get a good gauge of my intellectual level from that. Alan Silvestri's Roger Rabbit remains one of his finest scores and, although much of it is a traditional orchestral effort, the music for Bob Hoskin's private eye, Eddie Valiant has a nice noir-ish edge as does the smoky music for the sultry Mrs Rabbit, Jessica. Despite his occasional affectionate spoofs of John Barry's music in the Austin Powers films, nobody really remembers George S Clinton's music and it's Quincy Jones' Soul Bossa Nova that everyone comes away humming. A good tune, if a touch repetitious over the four and a half minutes presented here. Of the remaining entries, perhaps the most important is Elmer Bernstein's Man with the Golden Arm, a breakout score for the composer and a confirmation that jazz can underscore serious motion pictures. Walk on the Wild Side is less well known and a little more laid back, but no less accomplished.
In his early years in Hollywood John Williams wrote many jazz scores and recently revisited this style for Spielberg's frothy Catch Me if You Can. However, his first collaboration with Mark Rydell, Cinderella Liberty has less of the Williams sound, but is still one of the finest entries on the disc. No jazz album could be complete with Lalo Schifrin and his classic score to Bullitt is great fun, although in all honesty, I'd be hard pressed to recall much about it. In hindsight, the more funky Dirty Harry sounds a bit like 80's cop show music, not to mention the building brass chords of Ira Newborn's hilarious spoof theme for Police Squad and the Naked Gun films. Henry Mancini generally sported a lighthearted musical personality, but his score for Touch of Evil is much darker, but in many ways more interesting and anyway, who wants yet another version of The Pink Panther? Mind you, a bit of Peter Gunn would have been nice. The Dudley Moore Tribute is a fine collection, including the themes from the original Bedazzled and the curiously titled 30 is a Dangerous Age Cynthia. Indeed.
Jerry Fielding's The Gauntlet is led by a lovely theme for solo trumpet and makes for a relaxing mid album break in the midst of the general edginess, although the soloist starts showing off halfway through and produces some truly horrible noises that spoil an otherwise pleasing performance. Two composers of today and yesterday, renowned for their jazz scores are, rather unfortunately, omitted. Alex North's seminal A Streetcar Named Desire is not included, neither is anything by Mark Isham whose contribution to modern jazz scores is almost immeasurable. The National Youth Jazz Orchestra (award winning, but inexpensive) turn in a technically accomplished performance in most tracks, even if some - notably The Man with the Golden Arm - lack spontaneity and this isn't helped by an ultra crisp and somewhat harsh recording. Not an album that entirely appeals to me, but for those with a jazzy brain, a good mix of popular and rare. Now, someone, please pass me a bag, I think I'm gonna... no, wait, too late.
Rating ~ 