> I undertook a massive purchase binge in 2020 to start exploring more John
> Scott scores. I think before then I had only heard 6 of his works. It was
> WELL WORTH the effort; 7 of my top 10 of his were discovered in that first
> pandemic spring/summer. With a year-plus of separation from that
> shopaholic rampage, I thought I’d revisit my overall collection and see
> how everything stacks up.
> Writing up commentary on his works in full would be an enormous
> undertaking - AND since roughly half of those I own are for documentaries,
> I decided to split this into (at least) two parts. This first batch
> includes
> - 18 Cousteau scores spread across 6 CDs and 4 YouTube videos - and one
> album of Cousteau park music
> - 3 non-Cousteau scores spread across 5 discs, including one of his first
> ones (for, as he puts it, “an industrial documentary”) and one of his last
> ones.
> There is so much color in Scott’s documentary scores, whether they’re
> performed by more midsized groups or the few that have large ensembles.
> You get stuff that’s sometimes realized at the dramatic scale of, say,
> John Barry, but the way multiple individual portions of the orchestra are
> emphasized (frequently with virtuosic solo lines, or with ideas being
> handed off to another section) suggests Resphigi - think his triptych of
> Rome-related symphonic poems. A number of these albums feel as much like a
> “concerto for orchestra” as a score.
> Scott clearly had a love for woodwinds - not just for writing interesting
> parts for them (both solos and as part of the larger ensemble), but also
> the diversity of instruments he’d write for. Flutes! Saxes! Bass oboe! In
> this area he’s in the same league as Miklós Rózsa and Joe Hisaishi.
> Scott was also a renowned jazz performer prior to breaking into film
> scores - you can hear him on Goldfinger - and that sensibility filters
> into several works, namely the first Amazon score which has one of the
> most uncommon fusions of orchestra and jazz ever (it won’t be for
> everyone, but it certainly works for me).
> Sorting all this was like a Thomas Pynchon novel - maddeningly complex.
> First, what even IS a single score here? The Amazon Part 1 CD covers the
> first and third film in the series, while the Amazon Part 2 CD has the
> second and fourth film in the series PLUS another from Cousteau’s
> Rediscovery series, so that’s five items right there across three
> different years. The Papua New Guinea CD covers three films. Meanwhile,
> there’s no indication of what Channel Islands music belongs to which of
> the two films, so that’s grouped as one entry with a hilariously long
> name. Ooooof.
> Second, good luck figuring out release dates. The Cousteau Wikipedia page
> can have one release date (or two, with a split between French and US
> dates), IMDb can sometimes have another, and the albums (a number of which
> came out on Scott’s own label in the 80s and 90s) don’t always go into
> great detail on this.
> Third, there are often series titles and even subseries titles on top of
> the actual documentary name. It doesn’t impact any star ratings, but it
> does make me yearn for the simplicity of a name like “Planet Earth”.
> Also, sorry kids - but I think EVERY SINGLE ONE of these is CD only,
> though if it’s any consolation none of these was that expensive to pick up
> from SAE, Discogs, Ebay, Amazon, etc. - plus most have decent
> representation on YouTube.
> Rankings
> *****
> 1. Jules Verne Expedition / Odyssey of the Belem
> ****½
> 2. St. Lawrence
> 3. Rediscovery 1: Channel Islands
> 4. Amazon: Journey to a Thousand Rivers
> ****
> 5. Rediscovery 3: Lake Baikal
> 6. Rediscovery 1: Cuba
> 7. Rediscovery 1: Sea of Cortez
> 8. Rediscovery 3: Madagascar
> 9. To the Ends of the Earth
> ***½
> 10. Cousteau: The First 75 Years
> 11. Cousteau Odyssey: The Warm Blooded Sea
> 12. Cousteau Odyssey: Clipperton
> 13. Papua New Guinea: Center of Fire
> 14. Amazon: River of Gold
> 15. Rediscovery 1: Cape Horn
> 16. Parc Oceanique Cousteau
> 17. Papua New Guinea: River of Crocodile Men
> 18. Amazon: Shadows in the Wilderness
> 19. Amazon: Snowstorm in the Jungle
> 20. Papua New Guinea: Into the Time Machine
> ***
> 21. Rediscovery 1: Australia
> 22. Birds and Planes
> Details - Cousteau
> The First 75 Years / The Warm Blooded Sea - 1989 release on JOS
> Records
> The Cousteau Odyssey - The Warm Blooded Sea: Mammals of the Deep
> (1978) - ***½
> https://youtu.be/oVa6s-9kDIY
> This is, at least on CD, the genesis of a lot of Scott’s nature tendencies
> such as poetic woodwind solos, soulful and majestic music for whales, and
> effectively emotive material from even midsized ensembles. Slight touches
> of Goldsmith grace the playful dolphin music.
> Some might wish the themes were more earworms, and the final tracks are a
> bit sparse. Still, there’s lots to like here - and Scott would agree, as
> he cites this as one of his favorites from his long collaboration with
> Cousteau.
> Is there a Jaws quote for a track involving orcas? Yup. I’ll live.
> Jacques Cousteau: The First 75 Years (1986) - ***½
> https://youtu.be/jPzimmR0WSQ
> Some of the more tense tracks aren’t terribly interesting. The synthy
> Nutcracker adaptation ‘A Queer Hippo’ sticks out like a sore thumb. And it
> isn’t the most distinctive of Scott’s documentary scores. But on the whole
> this is an entertaining work with hints of Elmer Bernstein, with some
> great writing for flute and oboe and a few fun “popified” tracks with some
> catchy electric bass lines.
>
>
> St. Lawrence / Australia - 1989 release on JOS Records
> St. Lawrence: Stairway to the Sea (1982) - ****½
> https://youtu.be/U7ukY3UXTRo
> If you can only buy only one Cousteau score, it should be this. A bigger
> budget meant a bigger orchestra, and Scott responded with an often-grand
> seafaring composition, complete with a big ol’ Final
> Countdown-sized theme.
> Cousteau's Rediscovery of the World I - Australia: The Last Barrier
> (1989) - ***
> https://youtu.be/q3ntAy-3PpE
> A richly textured extension of Scott’s “mystery and wonder” music, but
> also one that feels like an 8-minute sampling of leftovers.
>
>
> Amazon Part 1: The River - 1989 release on JOS Records (part was
> released previously by VS on LP)
> Amazon: Journey to a Thousand Rivers (1983) - ****½
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhNsgtarkkE&t=71s
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzHrir2g69Y&t=135s
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fztEVkxMotU
> This remarkably cohesive work mixes groovy “Brazilian jazz” with his
> seafaring (riverfaring?) orchestral style. It contains some of the
> catchiest music of Scott’s career, namely the ebullient “Rendezvous with
> Calypso” which you could imagine fitting comfortably in a sports montage.
> Other singular moments show off Scott’s talent for orchestration, like how
> in ‘Ascent of Mount Mismi’ he layers enticing oboe and trumpet solos on
> top of simmering strings and chimes to create a sense of being enshrouded
> in a gorgeous fog.
> Chances that you’ll like this if you like Under Fire are high - though I
> refuse to acknowledge a universe where someone DOESN’T like Under Fire.
> Amazon: River of Gold (1984) - ***½
> https://youtu.be/yVIxHIjXUv0
> The rest of Amazon is enjoyable but not quite at the same level as
> Thousand Rivers; River of Gold is the best of the other three. Take some
> of the aforementioned quasi-pop mannerisms and add the occasional
> easygoing mariachi band influence and some rhythms that suggest the
> influence of Ravel’s Bolero.
>
>
> Amazon Part 2: The Indian - 1989 release on JOS Records
> Amazon: Shadows in the Wilderness (1983) - ***½
> As released this is a pleasant, comparatively brief extension of Scott’s
> Thousand Rivers themes, which may make some listeners wonder why this
> wasn’t on the Part 1 CD instead.
> Amazon: Snowstorm in the Jungle (1984) - ***½
> A slightly more tense take on the Amazon style. Worth hearing mainly for
> the performances of a new theme (often by a flute duet, a delightful Scott
> tendency) that play almost like a lament for the region. Sadly, the album
> does not include the film’s narration by Orson Welles about cocaine
> distribution.
> Cousteau's Rediscovery of the World I - Sea of Cortez: Legacy of
> Cortez (1987) - ****
> https://youtu.be/U43iVDM1m28
> Highly recommended for those who like orchestral music with the occasional
> Spanish flair - or for those who want to hear something performed on the
> same scale as Scott’s St. Lawrence. Bonus points for being one of only two
> works that actually adapts Scott’s magnificent title theme for the
> Rediscovery series.
>
>
> Cape Horn / Channel Islands - 1989 release on JOS Records
> Cousteau's Rediscovery of the World I - Cape Horn: Waters of the
> Wind (1986) - ***½
> https://youtu.be/v0gcL28Zrdc
> Possibly Scott’s least coherent Cousteau score. It toggles from oppressive
> thriller music to zany comedy stuff to operatic pieces that suggests
> someone had heard Hugo Friedhofer’s Boy on a Dolphin.
> Cousteau's Rediscovery of the World I - Channel Islands: 1) Waters of
> Contention & 2) Days of Future Past (1987) - ****½
> https://youtu.be/pwdXpsPBG1E
> Buoyant magic from start to finish. Scott had an undeniable talent for
> writing memorable, long-lined melodies, and this one’s adventurous title
> theme is up there with the best of them. The cover says the album contains
> an Emmy winner and that award REALLY should’ve gone to Channel Islands
> instead of Cape Horn.
>
>
> Parc Oceanique Cousteau - 1989 release on JOS Records
> Parc Oceanique Cousteau (1989) - ***½
> This work, written for a failed theme park, is an odd duck. It opens with
> the 10-minute “Dominion of the Blue Whale”, one of the most sensational
> pieces of Scott’s career. But it also has a few stretches of solo organ
> noodling, the last quarter of the album is pulled from earlier Cousteau
> scores, and the remainder of the new score is a mixed bag.
>
>
> Papua New Guinea - 1991 release on JOS Records
> Cousteau's Rediscovery of the World I - Papua New Guinea: Into the Time
> Machine (1989) - ***½
> Here’s a perfect antidote if you feel like Scott’s documentary output
> blends together - years before Howard Shore’s Naked Lunch, Scott
> was doing something similar - “hey, let’s experiment with jazz!” It’s not
> quite avant-garde, but it IS a much more challenging listening experience
> (but, hey, so is Naked Lunch).
> Cousteau's Rediscovery of the World I - Papua New Guinea: River of
> Crocodile Men (1989) - ***½
> Halfway between the first PNG and the more propulsive parts of Snowstorm
> in the Jungle. Fascinating writing, even if it still is at times a
> challenging listen. Fans of Thousand Rivers will appreciate its guitar
> groove reappearing in “River Journey”.
> Cousteau's Rediscovery of the World I - Papua New Guinea: Center of
> Fire (1989) - ***½
> https://youtu.be/jPzimmR0WSQ
> A more typically orchestral venture, though the jazz remains in the second
> track (trumpet and clarinet solos not too far from Alex North territory).
> “Their Grave, a Japanese Supply Ship” finds Scott writing in an alluring
> Eastern style (seemingly pentatonic). And the album closes with an
> enjoyably jubilant finale.
>
>
> The four unreleased scores that have suites on YouTube
> The Cousteau Odyssey - Clipperton: The Island Time Forgot (1981) -
> ***½
> https://youtu.be/h9y230tkpn8
> Main theme’s fine enough, but what’ll stick with you is how Scott cycles
> his ideas through different instruments and the way he combines elements
> (those swirling harps amidst muted trumpets to create a sense of mystery,
> for example).
> Cousteau’s Rediscovery of the World I - Cuba: Waters of Destiny
> (1986) - ****
> https://youtu.be/yomDwiQ73kE
> A bustling, mixed-meter Latin-flavored theme kicks off what is perhaps the
> most fun of Scott’s Cousteau scores. The active midsection recalls
> Resphigi.
> Cousteau's Rediscovery of the World III - Madagascar: Island of Heart
> and Soul 1) The Island Bleeds & 2) The Island of Soul (1995) -
> ****
> https://youtu.be/2T0NGIcVRpc
> An impressionistic treat that features an instrument that I didn’t even
> know existed (Bass oboe? Bass oboe!). It does tend to simmer in an
> “exotic” mode (think Rózsa in the Middle East), though the thrilling
> opener belongs on a Scott highlights album.
> This and Cuba were supposed to be issued on a CD that never materialized.
> Bummer.
> Cousteau's Rediscovery of the World III - Lake Baikal: Beneath the
> Mirror (1997) - ****
> https://youtu.be/JpB6ZblsVhU
> A mid-sized orchestra plus at least one balalaika create a uniquely folksy
> environment. If you liked the sensational whale theme from the Cousteau
> Park album, then you’ll thoroughly enjoy the variations that theme gets
> here as a secondary idea. It’s a relaxing, late-career gem.
>
>
> Details - Others
> Bird and Planes (1965) - ***
> The chamber ensemble plays more to the agitation and risk of flight than
> the wonder of it, save for one track which gives off some nice low-key
> jazz vibes. It’s a relatively minor work, so only seek it out if you’re
> seeking out the JOS Records release of The Shooting Party which
> this is included on.
> The documentary short this was written for appears to have been largely
> forgotten - it doesn’t have an IMDb page and isn’t even mentioned on
> director Hugh Hudson’s Wikipedia page.
>
>
> To the Ends of the Earth (1984) - ****
> https://youtu.be/JPgeLSee2Go
> Released by Prometheus in 1988, this (for better or worse) sounds EXACTLY
> like you’d expect a documentary score about modern polar exploration to
> sound - resilient, often brassy, sometimes stark, occasionally martial. Be
> prepared to conduct every time that soaring main theme gets played,
> especially during the exciting final track.
>
>
> Jules Verne Expedition: Aboard the Three-Masted Belem (2003) -
> *****
> One of the crowning achievements of Scott’s career, definitely his best
> documentary score, and maybe his best score period. It does occasionally
> eschew the impressionistic writing and detailed woodwind solos of his
> Cousteau works, but what you get instead is romanticized adventure music
> on a grand, even gargantuan scale.
> Scott would transform it into a four-movement symphony called “Odyssey of
> the Belem”. Clocking in at around 50 minutes, this program will likely be
> sufficient for most listeners.
> https://youtu.be/qTifaIXS7oI
> The actual film score recording was issued by the now-defunct Cinéfonia
> Records. The performance/recording is occasionally better relative to the
> symphony’s, and it features some lovely solo piano passages performed by
> Scott. But, to quote Intrada’s Roger Feigelson, “it appears no musical
> understanding went into this release” - tracks appear to be in a random
> order, it repeats some content (and not just with the narration tracks!),
> it mixes in source music most listeners won’t be interested in, and what
> appears to be nearly all of the fourth symphonic movement is sandwiched in
> the middle of the listening experience.
> It’s entirely possible the dense liner notes account for why this
> nearly-two hour release was structured like this, but I don’t speak
> French! It’s not a bad release by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s
> definitely an unwieldy one.
> https://youtu.be/qBzZDeA0u6A
> Both albums also include Scott’s rousing Jules Verne Festival Overture.
I feel bad for being too busy to properly respond to both this and your very interesting Craig Armstrong write ups. Trust me when I (probably speak for many of us) when I say you're doing some awesome work and reviewing! Just my life is too fucked right now to give it the proper rebuttal.
Also, glad to see Kuhni respond to this sucker, seeing as he was the first person to introduce me to Scott.
| 
).
