The next accordion record in our survey is simply titled Accordion
and the instrument this time is played by Dominic Cortese.
This is a more familiar approach to accordion music,
with waltzes and tangos and polkas. There's even a movie
theme thrown in, from La Strada. The arrangements, by guitarist Al Caiola, who also contributes
guitar playing and conducting, are very impressive. There's
even the odd special effect or two, such as when, I think,
Cortese uses the accordion keys without the bellows to produce
some unsual percussive effects. In addition to Caiola, guitarist Don Arnone also plays on the record.
Whoever is doing what—it's not clear exactly how the instrumentation
fits the tracks, since there are two guitarists, two bassists and
two drummers credited but you never hear all of these people at the
same time—the musicianship is excellent throughout.
2021 June 16 • Wednesday
The hunt for jazz guitarists of the 1950s and 1960s has led us
to some great accordion records from that time. The first such for your consideration, and with our highest
recommendation, is Jo Ann Castle's Accordion in Hi-Fi.
It starts with a deceptively slow intro to "Tico Tico"
before taking off and dazzling the listener with Castle's lightning
speed playing. The program has much more to offer than virtuosity, however, as the musicianship
and sensitivity of the players are both on a very high level, and
are on display in more relaxed settings such as "Harbor Lights"
and "The Breeze and I". The classic "The Flight of the Bumblebee" gets a reworking as a
breakneck "Bumble Boogie" and there are also wonderful renditions
of "Sway", "Cherokee" and "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise",
among others. The only complaint is that we don't know who's accompanying
Castle on guitar, bass and drums. Whoever they are, they're fantastic.
2021 June 14 • Monday
The 678th Soundtrack of the Week is Stephen Lawrence's
music for Alice, Sweet Alice.
It's on "Yellow Rain Coat with Blood Red Splatter" vinyl!
The "Prelude" is immediately eerie and atmospheric, with wordless childlike singing
and keening strings behind a hynpotic repearing figure. This followed by a stately waltz of a "Main Title" with a romantic and melancholy
feel to it.
Then it's time for more creepiness and suspense has bowed bass,
the strings from the "Prelude", the strummed piano strings,
interesting uses of percussion and other instruments, create
portraits of "Alice in the Basement", "Psychologist's Office"
and "Dom and Alice in the Basement". "Rent Check Opera" is actually an operatic piece with vocals
and everything. Lawrence went the distance for this movie! The "Prelude" is recalled for "Alice in the Warehouse" and then
"Alice and Angela" tags the waltz mood of the "Main Title"
while also creating some tense atmospheres. A dissonant and disturbing take on a lullaby theme gets "Karen Locked Up"
and then church organ announces that "The Casket Heats Up", for
a scene in a creamtorium or funeral parlor, I imagine. Similar motifs become more intense for "Dom at the Warehouse"
and the "Prelude" is revisited for "Karen on Her Bike". "Romance/Mrs. Tredoni" is a very different cue, with delicately
arpeggiated piano playing and comforting string parts, giving
a nice alternative to the tension and general scariness that's
come before. Although the second hal of the cue is another
moody and slightly ominous cue, immediately reprised in the next
track, "Mrs. Tredoni 2". Side A concludes with "At the Warehouse/Chase", another haunting and
lilting piece with menacing low tones at first, ending up with
a more muscular and tenser cue for the "Chase". The B side begins with "Processional", a Bach-like church organ piece,
followed by "The Pathologist", a return to the horror waltz theme. The organ then returns for "At the Church" and then there's an abrupt shift
to dive-bombing strings and a very Herrmannesque cue, "Not Again", which
also brings back the church organ. "Mrs. Tredoni Fixs a Fish" is a pretty but also suspenseful cue
that suggests unsettling activities. Then "Rolling Dom" is a swirl of different sounds from the orchestra
that leads into the very Psycho- and It's Alive/em>-like "Driving in the Rain". "Alice and the Roaches" and "The Roaches" revisit the moody horror waltz
and then there are "Main Theme 2", "Rolling Dom 2" and "Prelude 2", which
are pretty self-explanatory.
2021 June 11 • Friday
In addition to Neumation's recent book of Bernard Herrmann's score for
The Day the Earth Stood Still, there is yet another, massive,
definitive printing of a major soundtrack work for a historic
sci-fi movie. Omni Music Publishing has added to their already considerable
catalog of film scores with a full score book of
Jerry Goldsmith's music for Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
Every once in a while I revisit Star Trek: The Motion Picture to confirm
that it isn't a good movie. It isn't. But it is an interesting one and
in some ways its failure is commendable while the successes of other
movies simply demonstrate a lack of imagination, a hedging of bets, if you will. But when it comes to music, Star Trek: The Motion Picture has
one of the greatest scores of all time, composed by one of the unassailable
champions of the form. We love Jerry Goldsmith here and we've listened to this score, with and
without the movie, a lot. It's beyond thrilling to be able to read along now, to see the notations
for blaster beam, among other instruments, to see altered and unused cues
in their written form and to have the benefit of Omni's light analysis
of the various themes and motifs.
Do me a favor and go buy this, even if you have no interest at all.
I just want to encourage this kind of activity as much as possible.
2021 June 09 • Wednesday
For a while now, decades, I guess, we've been living in a golden age for soundtrack music
releases. It's incredible how much incredible music has been made available,
mostly thanks to the efforts of a relatively small number of dedicated
people with their own labels, such as Film Score Monthly (sorely missed now),
Intrada, Cinema-kan, Quartet etc. The Twilight Time limited edition blu-ray series has also been
releasing high quality transfers of films with isolated
audio tracks for just the music. This is also an amazing
development. And now we have to consider another part of film score
appreciation that's gaining ground. The release of
the actual written scores. With the right combination
of book and blu-ray, you can now watch, listen and
read along. Exhibit A is Neumation Music's new release of Bernard Herrmann's
groundbreaking and still thrilling and unmatched music for
The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Famous for its use of electric instruments, most notably two theremins
but also electric guitar, electric cello, electric violin and electric
contrabass—who else was even thinking of these instruments in 1951?—this
is one of Herrmann's masterpieces, anticipating trends in concert
music, minimalism, for instance, that critics and serious audiences
would swoon over decades later. The book has an introduction by the son of the original electric violinist
on the session, as well as a survey of the score, breakdowns of the individual
cues and notes on certain instruments (of which one is the theremin, as you
might expect). There aren't very many books that are essential to the Bernard Herrmann
devotee's library, but this is absolutely one of them.
2021 June 07 • Monday
And it's back to soundtrack master Jerry Goldsmith for our
677th Soundtrack of the Week: Shamus.
First of all it's a pleasure to see so many favorite musicians
on the session: Shelly Manne on drums, Ann Stockton on harp, Milt Holland
on percussion, and Al Hendrickson on guitar. ("Al" turns out to be
short for "Alton"!) There's also Moog in the ensemble, played by Michael Lang, not
a familiar name to me. The "Main Title" is a beautiful, gentle, swinging 9/8 piece
with exquisite piano and keyboard playing by Artie Kane
or Pearl Kaufman or both. Hendrickson does some very subtle
and restrained wah-wah guitar as well.
The same theme is then given a mood transformation
for a shaggier and tougher sound in the short
cues "A Real Dog No. 1" and "A Real Dog No. 2". A sprightlier, brighter version of the main theme, led
by electric piano, is the focus of "The Warehouse". "Here I Come—Part I" and "Here I Come—Part II" are exciting
action pieces in 6/8 with some similarites for Goldsmith's
music for the Flint movies. Hendrickson's guitar is
a feature in the second part. Then there's the love theme, "Getting Acquainted", also in two parts.
It's another reworking of the main theme but subtly arranged so
that the same melody sounds very different. Part of this is due
to the different rhythms expressed by different instruments,
perhaps similar to what Jimmy Giuffre used to call slow-motion counterpoint. And then things get groovy in "Surprise Visit", in which guitar and harp
really get to make an impression and Goldsmith lets the strings create
a sumptuous atmosphere, while drums and tabla keep things swaying irresistibly. The Moog has a lot to say in "A Broken Limb", a tense and lean action
piece with Goldsmith deploying piano and percussion in terse and jagged
figures that might remind you of how effectively he scored First Blood
as well as the Flint movies. This delightful but too short score concludes with the tender and dreamy
"Stay in My Life", a recapitulation of the main theme.
2021 June 04 • Friday
Happy birthday! Fifty-nine years ago today, when somebody I know was turning one, The Beach Boys
released their second single, "Surfin' Safari" b/w "409". The "409" is a hot rod, a "four-speed, dual-quad, positraction 409",
to be precise. What could any of that mean? We looked at the April 1961 issue
of Hot Rod magazine to find out.
Hot Rod is actually a pretty technical magazine and we were not enlightened.
Does it refer to the four-barrel carburetor or the dual head pipes? No idea.
Presumably all of that means that it's real fine.
2021 June 02 • Wednesday
Jeremy Scott's Original Sin: From Preacher's Kid to the Creation of
CinemaSins is a thoroughly enjoyable, entertaining and even educational
book which I'd recommend to anybody with the slightest interest.
While I've been a fan of CinemaSins for years—I have two
t-shirts from them—, I hadn't given much thought to the people
who made it or the inspiration for the channel, beyond a strong
feeling that they could chase their lineage directly back to
Mystery Science Theater 3000, a deduction confirmed
in this book. What I never would have guessed is that Jeremy grew up in a very religious
household and was, in fact, not allowed to go to the movies as movies
were considered, well, sinful. Beyond the occasional "safe" fare such
as The Care Bears Movie he pretty much had to wait until he had
left home at the age of eighteen to see all the movies that we take for
granted. The story of his upbringing is interesting and always affirming and sympathetic.
He loves his parents and is proud of them for their sincerely held
beliefs, their work ethic and their love for their family. While
their views on movies make me a bit dizzy, Jeremy certainly seems to
have benefited from having been brought up with all of the really important
elements necessary to health and security.
And look! He's flourished! He's made a love of movies into an extremely
well paying and self-employing gig and can go out to eat at Chart
in Los Angeles and New York. He wrote a book and I bought it! Also in here is a lot of stuff about CinemaSins, of course,
how the channel began and grew, as well as some general advice for
aspiring YouTubers. That's fairly interesting too but not as interesting as Jeremy's
stories of working in actual movie theaters. All in all, it seems like he's had a terrific life so far
and he made a really great book out of it. The first line is "I was born not breathing, and for two minutes
the doctors worked to revive me". (This turns out not to be true, not of
Jeremy, anyway.)
