Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,280
Written 1/26/00, Revised 2/17/08
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Buy it... if you own little or none of Mark McKenzie's music from
the early 1990's or, conversely, if you're interested in his unreleased
music for Mi Familia and Down Periscope.
Avoid it... if you already own Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde,
Frank and Jesse and McKenzie's later 'Con Passione' compilation,
for there's not much else to make this previous collection worth the
search.
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| McKenzie |
Mark McKenzie: Orchestral Film Music - Volume One:
(Mark McKenzie) While far from a household name, Mark McKenzie has been
active through the 1990's and 2000's as both an orchestrator for major
scores and a composer himself for small projects. His music is generally
melodic in structure and lyrical in movement, often made intimate by the
restraints of recording with small ensembles (or the need for such music
for the family style of films to which he has been typecast in the
2000's). Although many of his scores have been released due to the
support of Intrada Records, McKenzie has used a couple of promotional
compilations through the years to help promote some of his work that is
too obscure to even merit an album release from Intrada. In 1996, the
first of his compilations took the form of a lengthy album with
selections from five of his early scores. For a more balanced collection
of both this music and his entries from the late 1990's and early
2000's, a subsequent promotional compilation called "Con Passione" would
feature additional suites from The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca,
Durango, The Lost Child, and Dragonheart 2: A New
Beginning. Most of the material on "Orchestral Film Music - Volume
One" comes from Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde and Frank and
Jesse, both released in full by Intrada. The highlights for film
music fans, however, include music from the mid-1990's films Mi
Familia (My Family) and Down Periscope. The 1995 score for
Mi Familia is slightly flavored with a Spanish influence, but
mainly delves into the romanticism of the topic. For this Francis Ford
Coppola epic, McKenzie provides a classically based main theme to a
slow, waltz-like movement and a secondary woodwind theme of allure. The
brass in the title theme may exhibit a bit too much pomp for repeated
enjoyment, but the woodwind theme is hauntingly beautiful and its
performances in several tracks would foreshadow similar recorder
sequences in Durango. A small portion of McKenzie's music for
Mi Familia was released by Elektra Records at the time of the
film's release, but only on an album heavy with songs. A significant
amount of extra material, roughly 15 minutes, is available here.
As for the ridiculous comedy
Down Periscope,
three previously unreleased tracks amounting to about six minutes is
included on this compilation. When McKenzie's friend Randy Edelman did
not have time to rescore a few shots late in the film's production,
McKenzie stepped in and provided a few comedy march cues that very much
resemble some of the children's marches composed by John Debney at about
the same time. While even more material from
Mi Familia would
appear on the "Con Passione" release, this compilation offers the most
material from
Down Periscope. As for the other scores
represented,
Frank and Jesse features several strong portions,
especially those recorded with the orchestral ensemble. But the early
highlight of McKenzie's career is the delightfully playful romp
Dr.
Jekyll and Ms. Hyde, and all the highlights of that score are
presented here. Any album with the "Overture" and "Something Electrical"
cues from this score is worth having. The curiosity on this promotional
album is the single track from McKenzie's early
Warlock: The
Armageddon. The short cue presented here is by far not the best that
the score has to offer (in fact, you won't find it in identical form on
the original Intrada album) and there remains much great material on
that album with which McKenzie could promote his talents. The Druid
warrior theme alone from that score is extremely enjoyable, though it's
possible that no additional music from that score was included here
because of the dreadful quality of the recording. Nothing from
Warlock: The Armageddon would inhabit "Con Passione." Also a bit
of a curiosity on "Orchestral Film Music - Volume One" is the
arrangement of tracks so that the bits and pieces of each score are
scattered throughout the album. The experience would have been far more
coherent had each score's cues been featured together, starting with the
strength of
Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde, and McKenzie would solve
that problem on the follow-up compilation. In any case, this album still
presents a very good demonstration of McKenzie's early works. If you
manage to acquire this album early in your collection of McKenzie's
scores, there's not much point in seeking the full albums of
Frank
and Jesse or
Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde given how much is pulled
from them for this compilation.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
Bias Check:
For Mark McKenzie reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.9
(in 10 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.39
(in 4,297 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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