Customer Reviews

Sketches on Star Wars

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

How could you not enjoy a Jazz version of STAR WARS? This rendition by the Trotter Trio is highly enjoyable - favorites include "Imperial March" and "Title Theme". A must for any Star Wars fan. Play it at your next get together and see how long it takes listeners to realize that it's the STAR WARS score.

I had to test-play a copy of this cd to check for any problems so it afforded me a chance to listen to these jazz renditions of some Classic Star Wars theme music.

Well there WAS a disco version by Meco which I absolutely loved as a kid, not too long after the first movie came out. In just under 16 minutes this disco anthem boogied it's way through the entire movie's storyline. The Bar Scene was my favorite part.

Ok, I got a little side-tracked there. Anyway, I have to agree with a previous reviewer that the musical pieces are hard to tell that they are Star Wars' immediately. Of course the signature sound is not here as the Orchestral element is absent but some of the melodies are just, perhaps too different. Now on the disco rendition, you could still tell what was what in pretty much a few seconds.

Aside from that, this is pretty good. It is cute as a rendition from another genre. Just like songs get "remixed" from one genre to another, with convincing results - most of the time - here we have music getting "rendered" from one genre to another and that is convincing - most of the time... and sometimes it's just....interesting.

A spotty attempt to transcribe Williams' orchestral score down to a jazz combo. Oscar Peterson succeded with "West Side Story", but Bernstein's score was rooted in jazz anyway. I think Trotter played it safe here. The Main Theme is pretty much what you'd expect. Princess Lea's Theme does work as a sax ballad, and the Ewok tune (done like upbeat Art Tatum) is catchy but ends up sounding like the original Sesame Street Theme.

Trotter TOTALLY blows it with the Cantina Band Theme. I mean, here's the one piece that really lends itself to jazz exploration and Trotter does almost nothing interesting with it. The one true success is May the Force Be with You... arranged as a solo piano piece, it has a yearning tone-poem quality you would not expect from the original melody. If he had applied the same approach to the rest of the recording I think it could've been a good exercise in jazz arranement, rather than the novelty CD it is.

I have been a fan of the Trotter Trio for several years. I have all of his CDs that are jazz arrangements of the music of Stephen Sondheim. I love them all.

I have to admit that I was skeptical when I saw that he had taken on John Williams' most famous scores and made jazz from them...but to my pleasant surprise... I found this album to be fantastic.

Trotter uses his immense arranging skills to craft very fun, and at times very clever, settings of the tunes. If you are a Star Wars fan, listen the samples on this page. You will be hooked, I promise.

Of William's music, certainly some of the themes lend themselves much better to jazz than others. I would say that the ballades, i.e. the slower themes, work well with a jazz interpretation.

Kudos to Trotter for actually pulling it off, although the "average" Star Wars / Williams fan will not appreciate this stuff nor will the "average" jazz enthusiast.

Trotter's mistake was to use a saxophone; overdone, almost a cliche'. Think brass.

That said, this album has merit and is worth a listen . . . if you like piano/trio jazz and if you like Star Wars.

This is a decent attempt to transcribe John Williams original work to the jazz setting and though it succeeds somewhat it always seems to be missing something. I think that has to do with the fact that an integral part of the Star Wars music is the large orchestra sound that it has. When it gets switched to a small jazz orchestra it just loses all of the feeling and power that the original music contains. Maybe this music would have been nice if I had never heard the original music but having heard it I always feel like it should be more powerful. All of that being said, this is still a must for any Star Wars fan, and is still a worthy piece of jazz.

Just like the tital says. It's a cheesy lounge music version of classic John Williams. I picked it up used for about $7 and still felt like I was ripped off.