: (John Barry) In a story that
eventually connects the lives of six couples seemingly unrelated and
each dealing with their own sets of troubles, Willard Carroll assembles
a remarkable cast worth the admission price alone. With Sean Connery,
Gena Rowlands, Angelina Jolie, Gillian Anderson, Madeleine Stowe, Dennis
Quaid, Ellen Burstyn, Jon Stewart, Ryan Phillippe, Jay Mohr, and
Nastassja Kinski,
only touches upon each of its
characters in a limited time frame, requiring the audience to rely on
the snapshot performances of each lead actor to keep them entertained
until the larger issues of the film's objective can be addressed. The
arthouse style of the film played well with critics (especially due to
the spunky performance of Jolie), but failed to connect with audiences.
The production process of the film was a disaster, changing titles
several times and running through various crew shifts. The director had
been a fan of the laid back nightclub jazz styles of the 1950's,
embodied by the music of trumpeter Chet Baker, and had decided to take
that music (representative of the couple played by Connery and Rowlands)
and use it as the overriding identity of all the couples' journey in the
story. Also a fan of Baker's style was, naturally, composer John Barry,
who had gotten his start in the exact same industry as Baker at roughly
the same time. As a trumpet player in his own band, The John Barry
Seven, back in the 1950's, he was well capable of writing trumpet and
sax music that captures the necessary emotion or mood. His career was
wrapping up by 1999, with assignments farther between and a handful
rejected after being recorded.
Barry's work had perhaps outlived its usefulness,
becoming inflexible through the series of predictable drama assignments
of the 1990's that didn't require the composer to challenge the style
that had brought him his final awards recognition ten years earlier.
Just as he was named an Officer of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth
II in 1999 for his achievements in music,
Playing by Heart would
become yet another disappointment in what would prove to be his final
year of regular film score production. About three-quarters of John
Barry's score for
Playing by Heart would eventually be removed by
the producers of the film --against the wishes of the director-- and
replaced with hastily written material by Christopher Young. Barry's
original score features a smaller ensemble for most of its length,
utilizing Barry's traditional jazz elements (trumpet, alto sax,
harmonica, piano, bass, and drums) to create an intimate, 50's style
nightclub score. From
Body Heat to
The Specialist, fans
could hear snippets of the influences from Barry's roots, but in many of
those cases, the dramatic undertones of the music had been dominant. For
Playing by Heart, Barry would offer lengthy, ambient performances
by the small ensemble and his usual string orchestra for dramatic
effect. For only a few moments in "A Place Inside Alive and Well,"
Barry's trademark harmonica style raises memories of
Midnight
Cowboy and
Dance With Wolves. To fully enjoy the album, you
have to be the sort of person who can become lost in Barry's simple, and
yet beautiful small ensemble themes, two of which (introduced in the two
opening cues on the album) repeat almost unhindered throughout the work
here.
Without an appreciation for the nostalgia conjured by
this music, the score could easily pass you by without making much of an
impression. There is an allure to these rare, intimate recordings for
modern films that is perfect for the moody crowd browsing through the
jazz section of the local CD store. Also likely to please that crowd
will be three original tracks by Chet Baker that were recorded back in
the 1950s. The switch to and from analog sound is noticeable, yet the
source music fits so well into the score that the difference is hardly
problematic. Chris Botti's "Remembering Chet" performances on the
trumpet are also mixed in with the rest of the score; together, these
tracks are a splendid compilation for the genre. As writer Jon
Burlingame states in the album's notes, "L.A. musicians love to play on
Barry dates because he is among the few true melodists writing movies
these days." And it's because of this genuine style of thematic
simplicity that the score functions so well.
Playing by Heart
won't be a good match for every film music fan, and it might not even
interest those Barry fans who are attached to his grandiose scores with
more ambitious intent. But if you enjoyed those glimpses of old-style
Barry through the years, this is a fitting finale piece for his career.
During all of 1999, only two tracks of Barry's score for
Playing by
Heart (the two primary suite cues) had been available domestically
in the United States on a commercial album. Decca and Universal would
provide the complete score on a 2000 CD with Barry's material occupying
the majority of time on the product. The Young contribution, a sore spot
for many viewers of the film (as well as crew members), has never been
released commercially.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For John Barry reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.85
(in 27 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.54
(in 28,653 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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