Customer Reviews

Crime Jazz: Music In The First Degree (Television And Film Soundtrack Anthology)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Before the advent of CDs did you search the used record bins for the soundtracks from "Touch of Evil," "Sweet Smell of Success," "The Young Savages," and the like? The people who put together this essential compilation apparently did. This is an incredible encapsulation of an era that saw the flowering of a type of big-band jazz that is heard all too rarely these days. Almost anything you'd want to hear of tough, brassy, West Coast style programmatic jazz is here--or in Volume Two of the series. As usual, an outstanding job by Rhino Records.

This album conjures up so many vivid images: dark, slick, dangerous streets; sleazy night clubs; those cheap hotel rooms where the neon sign flashes through the window; tough guys in fedoras flipping silver dollars; Lee Marvin bolting out of his '57 Ford and blasting the bad guys ...

There's so much great music of this genre it must have been tough to select for this album. Over all, the compiler has done a great job, choosing pieces that, while following the general theme, are varied and distinct.

This is, as is the other crime Jazz CD, a truly excellent Compilation. All the Way from The Man with the Golden Arm, Mr. Lucky, Peter Gunn, Perry Mason. All Tracks have excellent quality. This is one of the finest compilations that has ever been made.

This is the first really excellent compilation from this genre, more than 10 years after it was revived by alternative radio. The presence of Buddy Morrow, Warren Barker & Kenyon Hopkins proves that the compiler knew where the gems were. Much of this music is truly difficult to locate on LP. It's a superb sampler & will point you in the right direction, down that dark street to the club that never closes.

Bob Rixon, WFMU-FM

Too many high-powered themes, not enough mood music from the rest of the films. Too much Elmer Bernstein--it's all good stuff, mind you, just too much the same.