Customer Reviews

Pawnbroker & Deadly Affair

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I've been a Quincy Jones fan for three decades now but I watched a BBC4 two-part, two-hour documentary on the living legend the other day and was amazed at how little I actually knew about him (for example: no one currently alive has won more Grammys than he has) and was similarly amazed at the sheer size of his body of work.

Most folks know of him via the very successful phase of his career in the 80s when he was the pop producer putting his Midas touch to works by among others, The Brothers Johnson, George Benson, Donna Summer, Patti Austin and James Ingram. Some may know of him only via his work on Michael Jackson's "Thriller", (the biggest selling album of all time) and USA for Africa's "We Are The World" (apparently the biggest selling single of all time).

There's much more to Q than the 80s though and his impact on the music scene had actually started three decades earlier. I already knew of his jazz pedigree but wasn't aware of the magnitude of his work on movie scores. I knew of some, like "In The Heat Of The Night", "The Color Purple", "The Wiz", "Ironside" & "Roots" (okay, the last two were TV series but I simply can't not mention them here) but wasn't aware of many others, including "In Cold Blood" and (surprise of all surprises) "The Italian Job"!

The documentary was indeed an education.

I'd already got this one though - and I can't remember exactly why I decided to buy it now; probably because I like the theme song so much - but what I DIDN'T know was that "The Pawnbroker", (the 1964 Sidney Lumet movie starring Rod Steiger) was the first ever movie Q provided the score to. His FIRST EVER movie score. I find that amazing.

It's accompanied on this disc by the music from "The Deadly Affair" (also a Sidney Lumet movie from 1966, starring James Mason). Q combines his classical training he'd received in Paris in the 50s with his natural jazz instincts to create an hour or so (just over 68mins) of beautiful musical landscapes with lots of strings - which I always love. It's simply wonderful. If you enjoy orchestral music with a touch of jazz, you'll absolutely love this.

Buyer beware though, and know who you're buying from: my copy arrived looking something akin to a bootleg. Some of the titles and iconic cover artwork were missing and no details of any of the musicians or vocalists who performed on the album appear in the inner-sleeve. I was going to return it and demand my money back but in the end I decided to keep it. The music is all complete and crystal clear and though I tend to value the inner-sleeve information, on this occasion I figured I bought the CD to listen to after all, and not to put up on the wall and admire.

But that's just me. Others might demand more from their CD purchases.

Like just about every soundtrack that Quincy Jones has ever composed, THE PAWNBROKER is just like the film: an unforgettable masterwork. I have to admit that it is one of the best jazz soundtracks I have ever heard.

This is hyped as a soundtrack of The Pawnbroker. I will not comment on that at all, because I haven't seen the film yet, or listened to that part of this soundtrack. But the last half of the CD is an entire album's worth of music, the soundtrack to the James Mason film The Deadly Affair. Great thriller movie music that is largely listenable anytime anywhere, but most importantly, with a rare ASTRUD GILBERTO track! If you are into Brazilian Jazz, don't let this slip away.

Quincy Jones has always done Justice to any Soundtrack that he has done.Being The Greatest Producer of All-Time you Wouldn't expect anything Less and on this One He Captures It Strongly.this is a classic.