It’s worth pointing out that Duke Jordan’s soundtrack to Les Liaisons Dangereuses now makes up only half of the original soundtrack available since the other part, performed by Thelonious Monk, was just recently discovered and released in a fantastic CD/LP package in 2017 by Sam/Saga record label. That doesn’t devalue what is an essential jazz soundtrack from a film by Nouvelle Vague director Roger Vadim, recorded by Art Blakey and Jazz Messengers, and written by the pianist Duke Jordan. His lively hard-bop and latin originals were used specifically as night club and party music in the film and his ‘No Problem’ became a classic with Blakey’s band in full flight. The second soundtrack on this 2CD set features another lineup of the Messengers performed for Edouard Moilinaro’s Des Femmes Disparaissent, a far more obscure movie that’s unavailable with English subtitles, as far as I know. It’s a cooler brand of jazz noir with compositions mostly by saxophonist Benny Golson, but also unusually by Blakey himself. They’re very smartly executed by the drummer’s arguably best, and third Messengers line-up. Both have been issued on various labels previously and are still available, but the third soundtrack, the entire LP of Jordan’s own less heady version of Les Liaisons Dangereueses issued in 1962 under his own name on Charlie Parker Records, seem to be unavailable (at least on CD). Jordan was cheated out of an acknowledgment, appearing under the alias ‘Jack Marray’ on the original film soundtrack and credits. Though breezier than the original, it has its moments with three versions of Jordan’s classic ‘No Problem’ that includes Art Taylor on the drums, plus a handful of re-titled tracks from the 1958 original. The biographical sleeve notes are pretty basic and there’s the inclusion of two bonus tracks, versions of ‘No Problem’ and ‘Miguel’s Party’, recorded in Paris in 1959 by a starry quintet fronted by Clark Terry and Barney Wilen.