Dave Gelly 

Crime Jazz! review – gripping film themes from Mancini, Elmer Bernstein and others

All the great 50s and 60s TV film noir soundtracks in one box set? An excellent idea, writes Dave Gelly
  
  

crime jazz review
Elmer Bernstein, a maestro of musical menace. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext

Movie soundtracks with a jazz slant. The sixth in this classic box-set series delves into the world of TV film noir. Through the 1950s and into the 60s, composers such as Henry Mancini, Elmer Bernstein and Nelson Riddle, working with the best musicians on the west coast, defined a style. The sleazy alto saxophone, nerve-jangling brass, menacing bass clarinet – these may have become cliches later, but on these seven discs they have bite and purpose. And the themes! Mancini’s Peter Gunn, Bernstein’s Johnny Staccato and Count Basie’s M Squad are among the most gripping examples.

 

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