Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,377
Written 8/3/99, Revised 4/15/07
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Buy it... only if you are an established fan of each individual
composer, and the corresponding album contains enough material absent
from your collection to warrant your interest.
Avoid it... if you expect consistency in sound quality (for these
are original recordings) and in the presentation of each artist's
styles.
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| Schifrin |
The Reel Music Series: (Quincy Jones, Burt
Bacharach, and Lalo Schifrin) There is an awkward relationship between
dedicated film score collectors and the three composers for whom these
albums pay tribute. From the early 1960's to the 1980's, Quincy Jones,
Burt Bacharach, and Lalo Schifrin filled an important role in Hollywood
composing, one that was necessitated by a temporary shift in audience
expectations in their soundtracks. It was the era of original pop
scores, coinciding with the Silver Age of film music, and as hot as
their music was for mainstream listeners at the time, they could not
stop the arrival of the Bronze age; with the resurrection of large
orchestral scores came the demise of their style, and it would
eventually be stifled almost completely by the trend of studios using
song compilations (in the 80's and 90's) in situations that would have
previously called for a mainstream pop score. There are composers
working in the 2000's who continue to fill the void (and, in fact, all
three of these composers lived past the prime of their era, with
Schifrin still composing in the late 00's), but their work is no longer
as hip and marketable. Still, when in the prime of their popularity,
these three artists accumulated awards nominations and wins at a
staggering rate, equaled only by John Williams in the Bronze and Digital
eras. In 1999, a series of compilations released by Hip-O Records paid
tribute to these jazz, pop, and easy listening composers and their
original songs and scores for motion pictures. The compilations aren't
aimed at the same crowd that typically buys film music today, except for
the holdovers from the previous generation. But fight this music as they
may, there needs to be a tribute to these men for their role in bringing
film music to the mainstream during that era, and these albums serve
that need. The first two of the series were those dedicated to Quincy
Jones and Burt Bacharach, with the music on both varying greatly from
track to track as you might expect.
Each album includes original recordings from musicals,
pop songs, straight score tracks, and not the kinds of re-recordings
that typically plague such albums. As such, the sound quality often
fluctuates with every few tracks, depending on the source masters. Their
aim is to be as representative of their careers as possible, and they
accomplish this well. The Bacharach release, with his
Arthur
themes occupying an important section of the album, is most in tune with
the largest audience. The easy listening selections are what most
collectors today would call "elevator music" or "grocery market music"
but nonetheless, for a fan of Bacharach's easy-going style, his album is
well suited for the smooth experience you'd expect. The Quincy Jones
album is perhaps the weakest of the three, for the selections vary so
greatly in venue from one to the next. Jones' career has been perhaps as
unpredictable as any in the three, and his album suffers as a result; a
greater attempt to group like-styled selections together might have
helped. The soul and jazz of this album is highlighted by B.B King's
performance of "You Put It On Me." The Lalo Schifrin compilation was the
last of the three, and although it's considerably shorter than the other
two, it's easy to suspect that it will remain more popular to the
traditional film music crowd. The sound quality is surprisingly good on
this album, with some remastering seemingly done to a few of the themes.
The album thankfully puts most of the jazzy pop material near the start
and concludes with the more dramatic efforts. The highlight of the album
is the track "Dirty Harry's Creed," which includes Eastwood's famous "Do
you feel lucky?" line from the film (mixed so that it doesn't interfere
with the music). On the whole, the CDs of the Reel Music series will
likely greatly satisfy fans of the particular artists. Broad film music
fans could find the Lalo Schifrin CD to have the most entertaining
material, while the Quincy Jones CD is a definite miss (even with its
Austin Powers track at the end). Each product is packaged
beautifully, though, with extensive liner notes detailing the career of
the corresponding artist.
@Amazon.com: CD or
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- The Reel Quincy Jones: **
- The Reel Burt Bacharach: ***
- The Reel Lalo Schifrin: ****
