 |
|
|
|
|
 |
Composed, Conducted, and Co-Produced by:
|
John Barry
|
Orchestrated by:
|
Greig McRitchie
|
Album Co-Produced by:
|
Ford A. Thaxton
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Availability:
Limited release; available only through specialty outlets.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Filmtracks Editorial Review:
 |
| | Barry | |
|
Ruby Cairo: (John Barry) A forgotten film, Ruby Cairo is a
suspenseful action mystery with star power that just happened to suffer from
some bad timing in its release date. The year 1993 was stocked with blockbuster
scores and films, and it was easy for both this film and score to simply wash
away into obscurity. For John Barry, it was a period in his career when he was
accumulating Academy Award nominations and wins for scores of immense and
melodramatic romance, creating often simplistic, but very appealing scores that
flew off the record shelves. It was also the time of his career when the Moviola
albums were becoming hot in correlation with Barry's tendency to score the
biggest new epic films. Ruby Cairo came in between these epics and the
his year of heavy drama (in which he wrote superb scores for Cry, The Beloved
Country and The Scarlet Letter), and while it is very much
reminiscent of this period of his work, it has more enthic flavour than usual.
The film's worldly locale, including the opportunity to score for scenes in
Latin America, allowed Barry to deviate from the typical, neatly packaged score
for the time. One of the strengths of the film is its cinematography, for which
Barry's music is especially well suited given its naturally expansive
traits.
As to be expected, the score is extremely thematic... almost to a fault. This is
nothing new, of course, since Barry has been accused by others that his music is
little more than songwriting orchestrated for a large performing group. The
theme itself is very typical of Barry, although being a fan of his myself, I
enjoy just about any variation he conjures up for his strings. The performances
of the title theme don't develop much past the primary string, secondary brass
staple, however Barry does allow it to climax in two points with the assistance
of a synthesized choir --most notably in the "Pyramic of Cheops" and "Carnival
Chase" cues. To add the South American feel to certain sequences, Barry employs
the talents of Ottmar Liebert on the flamenco guitar for simple, but elegant
accompaniment to the orchestra for some of the thematic sequences (and
importantly, the statement of theme which begins the album). Some of the more
refreshing aspects of the Ruby Cairo score are those during which Barry
emphasizes percussion for other effects. The prancing snare of the "Berlin
Fashion" to the methodical piano of "Come, We Must Hurry" present more
challenging music, and some of it gains the same power of suspence that can be
heard in some of the heavy, early underwater sequences of Raise the
Titanic. Barry also uses a rattler to both provide rhythm and accent certain
visuals on screen. Curious to the ears is the rare use of the synthetic in this
period of Barry's career, with light electronic chorus in two places,
synthesized harpsichord, and a Poledouris-inspired tone setter for chasing
scenes. All of these elements mix well in the "Come, We Must Hurry" cue.
Although the ethnic instrumentation really doesn't bring enough spirit to the
score to overwhelm you, there are a few cues in which Barry combines percussion
with those trademark strings for a more enjoyable result. The thematic highlight
of the album is the "Raking it In" cue. It's simplistic, sure, but for Barry
fans, there can be no better. If you're not a die hard fan of his (or if you're
related, perhaps, to the Monty Norman family), then you might not find enough
material unique to this effort to please you, especially if you are bothered by
his repetitive nature. This is the inherent problem with the album. There are
breaks from the constant performances of theme, though they only add up to about
a third of the running time of the score on album (which is about 40 minutes
minus song). This Prometheus release of music from the film is the second for
the score. A Japanese release of the score is also available from a few years
back, but it has become very difficult to find for Western collectors. One of
the non-Barry songs has been dropped from this new album, although the one with
Kristina Niccols that is heard at the start and end of the film (which is a very
decent song by Barry, as always) is included. The sound quality, given the
recording's recency, is excellent, with particular clarity during the percussive
performances (much like The Scarlet Letter). Perhaps even more
importantly, the re-release of Ruby Cairo on album, albeit limited in
availability, means that every one of John Barry's film scores of the 1990's is
available on album (including the 25 minute suite from Indecent Proposal
on its song album). For Barry fans, this score will be an expectedly pleasant
listen. ****
 |
|
Viewer Ratings and Comments:
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
• 1. Ruby Cairo Theme - Flamenco (3:54)
• 2. Opening Theme (3:04)
• 3. Banco de Cortez (2:12)
• 4. Cairo, Kentucky (2:25)
• 5. Veracruz Encounter (2:04)
• 6. Pyramid of Cheops (3:10)
• 7. Fergus Lamb (2:19)
• 8. Berlin Fashion (1:22)
| |
• 9. Come, We Must Hurry (3:34)
• 10. Raking it In (2:21)
• 11. Discovery (2:00)
• 12. The Last Time (3:19)
• 13. What Do You Want From Me? (2:03)
• 14. Carnival Chase (3:19)
• 15. Closing Theme (4:58)
• 16. The Secrets of My Heart (4:19)
|
Insert contains lengthy notes about the movie, score, and composer by James Southill.
|
