Anatomy of a Murder: From the Soundtrack of the Motion Picture (1959 Film) [Extra tracks, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered, Soundtrack]

Duke Ellington | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 27, 1999)
• Original Release Date: July 1, 1959
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered, Soundtrack
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B00000IMYH
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #90,553 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Main Title And Anatomy Of A Murder

2. Flirtibird

3. Way Early Subtone

4. Hero To Zero

5. Low Key Lightly

6. Happy Anatomy

7. Midnight Indigo

8. Almost Cried

9. Sunswept Sunday

10. Grace Valse

11. Happy Anatomy

12. Haupe

13. Upper And Outest

14. Anatomy Of A Murder - (bonus track, stereo single)

15. Merrily Rolling Along (Hero To Zero)

16. Sunswept Sunday - (bonus track)

17. Beer Garden - (bonus track, previously unreleased)

18. Happy Anatomy - (bonus track, previously unreleased)

19. Polly - (bonus track, previously unreleased)

20. Polly - (bonus track, previously unreleased, movie stings)

See all 27 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

"I like playing with music and its relationship to the theater, particularly in the supporting role," Duke Ellington remarked in an audio interview from the reissue of his splendid soundtrack to Otto Preminger's 1959 film, Anatomy of a Murder. "Doing the score for a picture really calls for being along with the action and absorbing all of the atmosphere [of] everything taking place in the picture." But as this CD--which includes 14 alternate takes--shows, the syncopated swing and soul Ellington and his men lay down steal the show. Just as Preminger moves and shapes his actor's characters, Ellington creates musical motifs that bring out the best in his musicians as well as the story line. The orchestra sets the pace with the fanfare-ish "Main Title," with tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves's candlelight tones. Johnny Hodges's upwardly mobile alto-sax cries signify the femme-fatale, hip-swinging rhythms of "Flirtibird," which segues into the finger-snapped "Way Early Subtone," with Russell Procope's cool clarinet. Other standouts include the ballad "Low Key Lightly," costarring Ellington's regal piano and Ray Nance's serenading violin, while "Midnight Indigo" is harmonically haunted by Ellington's crystalline celesta chords, Billy Strayhorn's telepathic piano comping, and Harry Carney's soul-stirring baritone sax. The insightful and authoritative notes by historian Phil Schaap and Wynton Marsalis, along with the alternate and rehearsal takes, give the listener a comprehensive overview into the movie's themes of murder, romance, and intrigue that Duke Ellington so brilliantly augmented and illuminated through jazz improvisation, big-band orchestration, and the blues. --Eugene Holley Jr.

Review

Rarely has such sumptuous jazz been married to a film soundtrack. Written in 1959 for director Otto Preminger's courtroom drama of sex and jealousy, the burnished glow of Ellington's score is undeniably erotic - indeed, the powerfully charged, slow burn of the second track here, "Flirtibird," is among Ellington's most sensual recordings.

Classic film scores build on recurring motifs that identify characters and situations, amplifying their existence for the viewer through the sense of hearing. The "flirty bird" of the title - Lee Remick's Laura Manion - is evoked early on by a six-note phrase, with emotional hues that undergo dramatic changes every time it reappears along the score's course. "Way Early Subtone" expands on that phrase in a passionate, extended coda that tries to rekindle the flame; by the time of "Almost Cried," the melody has taken on a deep, hard-edged sadness.

The Ellington orchestra sounded exquisite in the early summer sessions that produced this soundtrack. With a burnished sonic brilliance reminiscent of the glorious 1940 "Blanton/Webster" edition of the band, and soloists like Johnny Hodges and Paul Gonsalves (whose masterful tenor saxophone solo on "Hero To Zero" is surrounded by some truly adventurous harmonies), Ellington's tightly woven soundtrack took on a life independent of its original context. In doing so, it became one of Duke's most satisfying albums.

--- Larry Nai, JAZZIZ Magazine Copyright © 2000, Milor Entertainment, Inc. -- From Jazziz

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars AN ELLINGTON TREASURE April 8, 2001

By MOVIE MAVEN

Format:Audio CD

First, rent or buy the movie. "Anatomy of a Murder" is a classic courtroom mystery, arguably Otto Preminger's finest with a superb cast of stars: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Eve Arden, Ben Gazzara, George C. Scott and others--even Joseph N. Welch: the man who, in real (as opposed to reel) life, put Senator Joseph McCarthy in his place. The film is in gorgeous black and white and boasts one of the best scores ever written for a film. Why this very 'adult' movie should have practically disappeared is another mystery.

After you see the movie and hear how the brash big band and intimate, mellow Ellington jazz illuminates the script, you can buy the CD and listen over and over. There are also stars playing the score: Ray Nance, Jimmy Hamilton, Johnny Hodges, Shorty Baker, among others, are all beautifully featured.

Movie fans as well as jazz fans will be very happy they bought this Ellington treasure. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Pioneering and Perfect October 13, 2002

By Interplanetary Funksmanship

Format:Audio CD

While Elmer Bernstein is usually given credit for inventing the subgenre of the "crime jazz" soundtrack for Otto Preminger's 1955 film noir "The Man With the Golden Arm," Bernstein's score more or less stayed with the convention of wedding the music directly to the emotional import of the action onscreen. While he wrote some strong and visceral themes, and opened up a previously untapped genre (jazz) to the movies, Bernstein's score relies too heavily on one main theme, and lacks the cohesion of his later efforts. In 1958, Orson Welles hired composer Henry Mancini to write the score for his own noir thriller, "Touch of Evil," and Mancini's soundtrack really took the "crime jazz" soundtrack into previously uncharted territory, as Welles incorporated the soundtrack into the movie more as background music and raucous street noise than classic underscoring.

But it was with Preminger's 1959 courtroom drama "Anatomy of a Murder" that the "crime jazz" soundtrack really came to its full fruition. Whereas Bernstein and Mancini were classically-trained movie composers writing in the jazz genre, Ellington was one of jazz's true elder statesman, who had a refined interest in the classics, and his soundtrack for "Anatomy" is the most consummate of all jazz soundtracks, looking forward to Quincy Jones' backbeat scores. What Ellington brings at long last to the fore is the element of improvisation, which really gives the soundtrack an unpredictable bounce that works wonderfully vis-a-vis Wendell Mayes' unpredictable screenplay.

There are a number of listeners that regard Ellington as a fish out of water for this soundtrack, which they regard as a "nice attempt." I disagree, entirely: Ellington's dynamic orchestrations, economical use of themes and varied moods represent some of his best output, and although there is a hip, urbane sound to his big band/swing numbers, his sad songs are among the saddest sounds in all movies, even rivalling Bernard Herrmann's dark scoring. There is a bottomless pit of sorrow in his quiet blues numbers that ring true and resonate with the listener in the most bitter, sanguinary, way.

Columbia's reissuing packaging remains faithful to the original cover/label art and there are plenty of alternate takes and concurrent issues on this disc as a bonus. Ellington's commentary at the end gives further insight into the soundtrack, the movie itself, and his musical ideas. His voice is as musical as his numbers, very refined, gentlemanly and impassioned.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Ellington Gem (despite controversy over digitalization) August 26, 2010

By Samuel Chell HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Like Leonard Bernstein (not Elmer), the Ellington/Strayhorn team composed essentially only one "pure" film score (though "Paris Blues" has its moments). It's a good one, not only deserving its Grammy Award but contributing immensely to the characterizations and drama of a film Jimmy Stewart cited as one of his two favorites (how he could omit "Vertigo" defies human comprehension). Immediately the listener is apt to be struck by a "different-sounding" Ellington. It's as though he's taken the characteristic sounds of the "jungle music" from his Cotton Club days and inflected them with sufficient dissonance and thick orchestral textures to suggest a more contemporary jungle: that of the human psyche in mid-20th-century America or, to be more specific, the world of "film noir."

All the same, it won't take long for even the casual Ellington fan to recognize the stamp of the Maestro and his "instrument"--from Duke's downward arpeggios to the inimitable tonal "voices" of Johnny Hodges, Paul Gonsalves, Jimmy Hamilton, and Cat Anderson (doing for this film what Bernard Hermann's famously screeching violins do for the unforgettable shower scene in "Psycho").

Sony (Columbia) has obviously spent money on this budget-priced digital restoration--from the research to the program notes to the out-takes and interviews as well as the digital processing itself. I listened to the album during a long car trip, and from the number of times I was forced to adjust the volume, it would appear that Sony's engineers decided to do without "dynamics compression," or "normalization." Audio, or frequency, compression in the form of smaller-bit files would be unthinkable for a full-fidelity album, but dynamics compression, which amounts to "lessening" the distance between the extremely pianissimo passages and the ultra fortissimo ones, is a common practice to assure the listener's being able to hear everything without strain (in the case of the most nuanced measures) or discomfort (during the full-blown, brassy interludes). Whether the decision to take this route was the better one waits to be decided, at least in my case (when I'm in a quiet room without an adjacent passenger sensitive to the extremes of an undeniably intrusive loudness if not stridency).

Besides comparing the memory of the film score or the LP version with this restored digital version, the listener might also compare a track like "Pie Eye's Blues" with Ellington's reprising of the same number for his under-appreciated "Blues in Orbit." If the latter example seems preferable, the engineers of the latest edition of "Anatomy of a Murder" may indeed have exercised well-intended but less than stellar judgment.