|
|
|
Swing Kids |
|
|
|
| Composed, Conducted, and Co-Produced by: |
James Horner
|
| Orchestrated by: |
Joel Rosenbaum
|
| Co-Produced by: |
Robert Kraft
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Availability: |
Regular U.S. release, still in print as of 2005.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
| |
|
| | @Amazon.com: |
|
Used Price: $2.45
Sales Rank: 24028
Avg. Rating:
| |
|
or read more reviews and hear more audio clips at Amazon.com.
|
| Compare Prices: |
|
|
| Find it Used: |
|
Check for used copies of this album in the:
|
Soundtrack Section at eBay
|
(including eBay Stores and Half.com listings)
|
| |
 |
|
|
Buy it... for the vintage and re-recorded jazz classics that were the
reason the film was made.
Avoid it... if you're a James Horner collector who would need to
navigate through the jazz to get to the drab and uninspired underscore.
| |
Editorial Review: |
Written
6/15/98, Revised 3/28/05 - Filmtracks Rank: #528
| |
 |
| | Horner | |
|
Swing Kids: (James Horner) Few people know that during
the height of Hitler's reign in Germany, there was a loyal and popular
following of American jazz music. The youths that enjoyed the likes of Benny
Goodman and Count Basie were, of course, engaging in what the Third Reich
considered illegal behavior, and the film attempts to show their resilience
in the name of music... to an extent. Where Swing Kids utterly fails
as a movie is in its treatment of everything outside of the jazz itself.
Almost as though the filmmakers made the 1930's jazz the main attraction of
the film, they managed to neglect the gravity of the surrounding social and
political events. While you become attached to a certain number of 'swing
kids' in the story, the film makes only vague and distant references to the
persecution and war around them. When the kids are forced to either enlist
in the army or be sent to concentration camps, their reactions aren't really
clear, for in their jazz-centered view on life, they seem to have no
feelings whatsoever for the Jews. This is especially strange given the
complete logical misstep that the film makes by forgetting that if it
weren't for Jews, there wouldn't have been music by Benny Goodman and Artie
Shaw to enjoy. At any rate, the film's lack of focus is important for
soundtrack collectors because that disjointed attention within the film
causes significant problems for the album from the film as well. Composer
James Horner was at the height of his discovery of human drama in 1993, a
year that featured both The Pelican Brief and Searching for Bobby
Fischer, and he would be called upon to once again place the same
weighty hand of orchestral emotion on Swing Kids. The only problem is
that Horner was put into a position to write a score for the horrors of war,
and he would have absolutely nothing to contribute in the genre of the
classic jazz, which is a shame given that Horner had proven in Field of
Dreams and in snippets from comedy scores that he was indeed capable of
offering an extension of that sound.
To say that Horner's underscore in Swing Kids is
overshadowed by the jazz is an understatement. To discuss the actual 23
minutes of score available on the commercial album, a disclaimer must be
made right at the start that Horner seems to have bowed to the jazz music in
the sense that he doesn't really attempt write music that competes with it.
Fully orchestral, the score rumbles in the depths of heavily mixed bass
strings, with neo-classical chord progressions ominously churning the
background as an adult choir (as opposed to his usual children's or strictly
women's choirs) sometimes coveys vocals with the same style as in the
opening and closing of Red Heat. A sense of urgency in the deliberate
snare and cymbal-tapping is defied by the often excruciatingly slow tempo of
his cues. Perhaps this is just an illusion due to the score being surrounded
by such quick jazz pieces. But compared to other applicable war material by
Horner, including Enemy at the Gates in a most related sense, only
the tolling of chimes really ties this material to such similar assignments.
As the film has difficulty pinpointing the exact personalities of the kids,
and their reasons for doing what they do, Horner stays away from the murky
waters of such personalities. In fact, he provides no thematic material
throughout the film, further allowing his score to slip away very quickly
from memory. The jazz, on the other hand, was obviously the main intent for
making the film, and even down to its louder mixing on album, the producers
had the jazz first and foremost on their minds. And the jazz is very good in
most cases, with a strong selection from the era appearing in the film. The
album is an extreme disappointment, however. Viewers of the film will want a
compilation of the jazz heard in its length, and Horner collectors will have
only a 50-50 chance of being even remotely interested in that jazz.
Unfortunately, the album mixes the two elements, mingling score tracks in
between jazz (both vintage and re-recorded), causing both to suffer. The
album was badly in need of separation of these two halves of music, because
Horner's score does little more than cast a shadow over Benny Goodman. As
for Horner's part, the slight inspiration of individuality in the final cue
cannot compensate for the extremely drab nature of the score's entirety. **
| Bias Check: | For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.12 (in 89 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.34
(in 158,769 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
 |
Viewer Ratings and Comments: |
|
 |
Track Listings: |
Total Time: 53:08 |
|
1. Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing) - song by Louis Prima (4:57)
2. Nothing to Report* (1:36)
3. Shout and Feel It - song by Count Basie (2:27)
4. It Don't Mean a Thing (If it Ain't Got that Swing) - performed by Billy Banks (2:48)
5. The Letter* (4:09)
6. Flat Foot Floogee - performed by Benny Goodman (3:17)
7. Arvid Beaten* (2:10)
8. Swingtime in the Rockies - performed by Benny Goodman (3:08)
9. Daphne - song by Django Reinhardt (1:50)
10. Training for Utopia* (3:43)
11. Life Goes to a Party/Jumpin' at the Woodside - song by Bennie Goodman and Count Basie (2:17)
12. Goodnight, My Love - performed by Benny Goodman (3:06)
13. Ashes* (4:20)
14. Bei Mir Bist Du Schon - performed by Janis Siegel (4:09)
15. The Bismarck* (3:04)
16. Swing Heil* (5:25)
| |
|
* score composed by James Horner
 |
Notes and Quotes: |
|
The insert notes include information about the jazz songs used in the film. Extensive credits
are provided.
Notable Performers: Abe Most, Dan Higgins, Robert Tricarico, Gene Cipriano, Curt
McGettrick (saxophones & woodwinds), Jerry Hey, Gary Grant, Larry Hall,
Chuck Findley (trumpets), Bill Reichenbach, Lloyd Ulyate, John Johnson
(trombones), Sid Page (violin), Michael Lang (piano), Dennis Budimir,
Dean Parks (guitars), Ken Wild, Chuck Domonico (bass), Ralph Humphrey
(drums).
|