Crime jazz: music in the second degree

Crime Jazz: music in the Second Degree. Los Angeles: Rhino, 1997 (CD)

Numerous notable jazz musicians contributed to movie and television soundtracks of crime thrillers, and this well-annotated 18-song compilation gathers several of the more outstanding examples. It's not so much a jazz anthology, however, as it is an anthology of some of the more memorable and effective musical backgrounds from suspense films, albeit ones that happened to feature a jazzy flair and some notable players. Stan Kenton, Lalo Schifrin, Quincy Jones, Kai Winding, and Stan Getz are among the most recognizable contributors to the disc; Henry Mancini is not, it's fair to say, beloved by many jazz connoisseurs, but he often used jazzy flourishes in his soundtrack work. There are extracts from West Side Story, 77 Sunset Strip, Touch of Evil, The Asphalt Jungle, and Mickey One, though many of the other sources will be familiar only to film noir buffs. It's still a decent collection for those who like ominous, jazz-influenced soundtracks of this vintage, characterized by the anxious crescendos, prattling bongos, and elongated brass bursts that underpinned many an action scene.

Richie Unterberger

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