Customer Reviews

I Want To Live: Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack [Enhanced CD]

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Any Jazz lover who is over about 45 yrs of age probably "cut his/her teeth" on listening to the soundtracks of I WANT TO LIVE and to THE HUSTLER. In my opinion they were defining works in that anyone who went to movies probably saw those two films. They came out about the same time and the soundtracks were readily available. Even though the music is from what is informally called "cool" jazz, the intensity of emotions displayed in the film are well augmented by the score. The music ranges from "firey" to "haunting" and even if the listener has not seen the film, one can associate the title of a track with the music quite easily. I know that a "true jazz aficionado" wants to only hear a live performance in order to experience the spontaniety of jazz. But, for a new generation that will probably never have that opportunity, this is just about as good as it will ever get.

I Want To Live was originally released as a "Gerry Mulligan" album and as a seperate soundtrack. The soundtrack is first of all interesting for Johnny Mandel fans.
Mulligan doesn't play on the soundtrack. However he appears in the opening-scene of the movie. A DVD is available. Mulligan's music was originally on the album The Jazz combo from I want to live. (London SAH-T 6023) With Shelly Mann, Frank Rosolino, Art Farmer, Bud Shank, Red Mitchell and Pete Jolly. Mulligan plays like a hungry dog having his dinner!
This is both albums on a single CD.

The soundtrack for the movie I Want to Live is Mulligan at his best. The film came out in 56 and I wasn't really aware of Mulligan until that time. His baritone sax gives the score depth and feeling.... a feeling of sadness and wildness both. My favourite track is "Black Nightgown". If you like Gerry Mulligan get the album and if you want to see a good flick, rent the video.

I love the moody jazz composed by Johnny Mandel presented on this cd. I wasn't even alive then and it makes me think: 1950s-California. Another reviewer said that there isn't a hook or dramatic moment on this cd. Well, one reason is that this is movie music, so it's specific to the scene and to the movie's dramatic moments. The music doesn't carry the drama, the words and acting do. There's an interview with Johnny Mandel where he says that he writes music for singers that doesn't intrude upon the singer, and the same could be said for this movie music.

I was 8 years old when I was introduced to this soundtrack. Probably up to that point the only jazz that I ever heard was the theme music on "Top Cat", a children's Saturday morning cartoon. And since that day in 1960, the darkness and the mood of these tracks, particularly, the movie's theme and "Black Nightgown" haunted me. And unbeknownst to me, it influenced my own compositions as I matured as a composer. Unfortunately, I can't say that I met Gerry or the other cats but I am at least 2 degrees away by the fine musicians I have worked with. I am certain that the injection of jazz into soundtracks also influenced what was to come down the road. I still have the original album, in its old and tattered state.

This is a good jazz soundtrack from a late 1950s film called I Want To Live. This is a real jazz score by Johnny Mandel, who wrote the theme for M*A*S*H

The score is well rounded, with swing, be-bop, and some of that back alley jazz you heard in 50s films whenever the protagonist got p-ss drunk or the bad guys in fadoras showed up. Nice

But I kept waiting for a hook to reach and grab and the hook never arrived. It all blends in well, but nothing made me lean forward. Still, this is very good.