Last Tango In Paris: Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack [Enhanced, Soundtrack]

Gato Barbieri | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 9, 1998)
• Original Release Date: February 7, 1973
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced, Soundtrack
• Label: Rykodisc
• ASIN: B000007O7A
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #148,780 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Last Tango In Paris-Tango

2. Jeanne

3. Girl In Black (Tango (Para Mi Negra)

4. Last Tango In Paris-Ballad

5. Fake Ophelia

6. Picture In The Rain

7. Return-Tango (La Vuelta)

8. It's Over

9. Goodbye (Un Largo Adios)

10. Why Did She Choose You?

11. Last Tango In Paris-Jazz Waltz

12. The Last Tango In Paris Suite

13. Untitled

14. Untitled

15. Untitled

16. Untitled

17. Untitled

18. Untitled

19. Untitled

20. Untitled

See all 40 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Steeped in controversy upon its release in 1973, director Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris has since been called everything from nonutilitarian pornography to a cinematic masterpiece. Two key elements that Bertolucci utilized to breath life into Tango's nihilistic themes and the dark, obsessive relationship at its core were Marlon Brando's harrowing, largely improvised performance and the erotically charged jazz score of self-taught Latin sax virtuoso Gato Barbieri. While the musician's main theme has become a much-covered jazz standard, it's but a tantalizingly sexy sample of the cross-cultural stylings at work in this masterful score. While Barbieri rerecorded the core of his Tango music in lush, fleshier arrangements for the soundtrack album's initial release, this Ryko edition (nearly twice the length of the original) augments those tracks with a compelling half-hour suite of cues culled directly from the film's scoring sessions. By turns stark and sentimental, erotic and experimental, these previously unreleased cues form a revelatory new "second movement" to Barbieri's hauntingly familiar score. --Jerry McCulley

From Jazziz

Argentine saxophonist Gato Barbieri was fiery in the 1960s, slick in the '70s, and on this soundtrack for Bernardo Bertolucci's ruckus-causing 1973 psychodrama he was cinematic: composing a musical backdrop for the mad tusslings of Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider.

Listening to the album now, in this expanded version, the music doesn't wear as well as the memory of it. Without the visuals, Barbieri's main theme becomes awfully banal and repetitive - despite its languid air of doomed romanticism. It's not until the last track of the original LP version, a "jazz waltz" version of the theme, that Gato really takes off, blowing hot over steady percussive surges and a driving bass line. The CD includes substantial bonus material, however: a full suite, with orchestrations by Oliver Nelson, which does a more extensive job of developing the theme.

--- Steve Dollar, JAZZIZ Magazine Copyright © 2000, Milor Entertainment, Inc.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A CLASSIC REPACKAGED...FINALLY!, November 7, 2000

By 

L. S. Slaughter "silvanus" (Chapel Hill, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Last Tango In Paris: Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack (Audio CD)

Well, it's about time! This wonderful soundtrack has been out-of-print for about 15 years since UA folded, so imagine my elation when I glimpsed that it not only included all the standard cuts from the 72 release, but the long-awaited original cues from the film itself (Gato and Oliver Nelson re-recorded the themes for the 72 soundtrack)!

Granted, I've listened to these songs so many times in the passing decades that at moments they teeter into parodies of tango, but that's not Gato's fault; it's just cognitive dissonance. Aside from the great "Ballad" treatment of the raw main theme, there's the rapturous "La Vuelta", "Return" and, best of all, "Why Did She Choose You?", which will knock over anyone who spent a rainy day in Europe loving or lamenting love with a cigarette and a cup of espresso.

Special mention must be made of the original sound cues included herein for the first time on disc. I was always peeved they were missing from the 72 release. The killer cut is the first of the suite of 28 cues which was used over the Francis Bacon paintings for the Main Title sequence. Oh, this is so low and raw and beautiful, and Bacon's paintings of distorted men and women are forever wedded in my mind with these mournful strains.

Jazz Maestro Oliver Nelson has done an excellent job of draping Gato's gutter-cry sax with lush strings, and the orchestrations get even more interesting on the "Suite" of cues to follow. In the decades since this film arrived, I've yet to hear another score with these peculiar colors, which for lack of a more appropriate word, can only be described as "uterine" in the best sense.

Praise to Rykodisc for going the extra mile here. I do wish the cover art was a booklet instead of a fold out, and an enhanced trailer clip would have been swell, but, nah, small complaint.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect Reminder Of My #1 Film, December 3, 2000

By 

carol irvin "carol irvin" (United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Last Tango In Paris: Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack (Audio CD)

If you don't love the movie as much as I do, this might not be a 5 star album for you. Since it recalls the film perfectly for me, it makes that grade. Normally, I do not listen to tango music but again, it fits with the film. It is a very lush and beautiful score and, like all soundtracks, it has many repetitive elements. It is all instrumental. It can be very bold and strident at some points so be ready for that facet if you are trying it out over a candlelit dinner! If you are not a fan of the film, I would advise you to listen to selections from it first.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars erotic, passionate, intoxicating, enveloping, July 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Last Tango In Paris: Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack (Audio CD)

I have searched for close to 25 years for "Last Tango" CD. The music is absolutely breathtaking and haunting. It's one of those albums that will stay a rare classic for years to come...