Jazz breaking news: Box Set To Feature Gems Of Jazz-Inspired Film Noir Soundtracks
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Film noir is a genre that has attracted many jazz composers and performers over the years and now for the first time, all of the jazz-inspired soundtracks from the 1950s era of film noir are collected together on one exclusively designed, deluxe 5-CD box set.
Film Noir has been compiled (along with extensive liner notes in a 24-page booklet) by Jazzwise film writer Selwyn Harris and is the first volume in an ongoing series dedicated to Jazz on Film and will feature some great jazz (as well as groundbreaking film music) from classics as in Duke Ellington’s Anatomy of a Murder, Elmer Bernstein’s The Man with the Golden Arm and The Sweet Smell of Success through to a few relatively unknown scores from the likes of Shorty Rogers and John Lewis with the Modern Jazz Quartet. The second box set in the Jazz on Film series is set for release in the autumn. Titled The Rebels and the Beats, it will feature scores from films such as The Wild One, I Want to Live! through to The Subterraneans .
To celebrate the launch of the first 5-CD box trumpeter and arranger Guy Barker (pictured), who himself has been heavily influenced by film noir, will perform an ensemble suite based on themes to the seven film scores contained on the first 5-CD box-set, upstairs at Ronnie Scott’s on 18 May with a band featuring Sammy Mayne alto/tenor sax; Alex Garnett tenor/baritone sax; Barnaby Dickinson trombone; Ross Stanley piano; Chris Hill bass and Ralph Salmins drums.
– Stephen Graham