UPDATE: I made a mistake in the first draft, writing in the lede that Mancini died recently, when he died in 1994. I was thinking of the Mancini centennial, which was last year.
I wrote three pieces about Mancini for #Mancini100
Wait! I do know this record. I was like "Who's Sade?" but you meant Marquis De Sade. LOL. I like Richard Davis on it. But actually not sure about Schifrin's own jazz piano solos really. Still a cool record though
The modern dance club at my high school choreographed a whole suite based on Schifrin/Sade. Pretty sophisticated stuff for 1968. Anyway it put me onto the album, which is still on my shelf, and when I got to Verve 25 years later, I put it on the CD reissue list—not a commercial decision but a perk of being the boss 😎
So many Schiffrin movies to revisit.. I remember liking the Aegean-tinged ESCAPE TO ATHENA and genre appropriate MAGNUM FORCE and LOVE AND BULLETS.. though am no expert. Your DANUBE INCIDENT cue is also very nice, they play it on my local jazz radio station in Portland OR on the hour when they need to fill x-amount of minutes. I transcribed it to check out the counterpoint and sometimes can even convince guys to play it on the gig!
dang that it is nice to hear. I perhaps should have said in the post: "Ben and I play parts on 'Danube Incident' closely modeled on Schifrin's original"---meaning I truly have nothing to do with that great counterpoint, it is all Lalo.
Thanks for this. Of the three, my favorite, by far is Mandel. He wrote great, swinging jazz charts for big bands, and my nomination for one of the great movie themes, "Emily," for "The Americanization Of Emily" I saw it in its initial release on a big screen, and fell in love with that theme! Toward the ends of the '90s, at Joe Segal's Jazz Showcase, vocalist Jackie Allen introduced me to the delightful Mercer lyric (which I doubt was written for the film). Talk about legs -- live recordings of Bill Evans and Paul Desmond reveal that the tune was part of their regular repertoire to the ends of both of their lives.
As long as people are bringing up other jazz-adjacent Hollywood composers, what about Gil Mellé? His theme for Kolchak: The Night Stalker was fantastic, really affected me as a kid.
The COLUMBO episode "Death Lends a Hand" with Robert Culp and Ray Milland is one of the greatest of the series. Gil Mellé's tremendous contribution has not just conventional jazzy scoring but also avant electronic techniques. I just love it
I remember seeing a talk show in the 70s or 80s and the guest was going to be in a new series. They talked about the series music and he said I don't want any of that old Lalo Schiffin crap. It didn't go over well. Dead silence. I forgot who said it.
Thanks Peter! Absolutely right of course. But the movie music of Mandel, Mancini, and Schifrin SOUNDS like jazz. John Williams much less so, a few things notwithstanding. We obviously know Williams for the symphonic scoring. (However I heard him play "All the Things You Are" recently and was impressed.) As for Legrand, while his songs are beloved by jazz cats, the scores are again not that jazzy--but in this case I have no doubt there's plenty that I don't know. At any rate The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is its own universe--which, of course, is very much to Legrand's credit.
Afraid we'll have to agree to disagree when it comes to Schifrin’s title song for The Cincinnati Kid. For me it's as representative of 1965 pop culture cool as a Ford Mustang from that year. But maybe that's because I'm from Ohio.
Please don't tell me you also don't like the discofied Black Widow LP!
well, all I can say is that I've never heard a cover of "The Cincinnati Kid" by anyone, ever, anywhere, even though it was a famous movie, famous composer, and famous singer.
Mannix tries to find a Black former boxing champion played by Brock Peters who's suspected of murdering a fight-fixer known for corrupting young fighters.
Features Kim Hamilton as Hallie Woods a jazz singer.
There's a jazz club scene I could swear it was Barney Kessel.
There's some scorching jazz guitar in the background.
I'm sure some veteran LA Hollywood / TV in the band I couldn't ID.
Tried finding online, but seems the only place to watch is Plex or if you have the DVD Mannix Box set.
OK, I realize the main thrust of your piece is respectful of Mancini, but "a few hit tunes"? A FEW? I thought about it for thirty seconds and came up with: The Peter Gunn Theme; Moon River; Charade; The Days of Wine and Roses; The Sweetheart Tree; Two for the Road; Moment to Moment; Mr. Lucky; The Pink Panther Theme; Baby Elephant Walk. To say nothing of tunes that arguably weren't "hits" but became standards, like Dreamsville.
I love Mancini but many of his hits are cameos, meaning: the best version of cliches. Due respect, but he's no Gershwin, Kern, or Monk when it comes to melodic inspiration. The only two Mancini melodies regularly called on common practice gigs are "The Days of Wine and Roses" and "Moon River." However I have played "Moment to Moment," "Nothing to Lose," and "Charade" in public, the last one even on record with Tootie and Ben.
I wrote three pieces about Mancini, the most relevant to your agitated comment is this one:
Lalo and I shared a publisher - the great Lauren Keiser. Lauren's recent passing was a real blow to our very dedicated, very niche corner of the music world. Here's what I have decided is my favorite stretch of non-"Mission", non-"Dirty Harry" Lalo Schifrin scoring. This music alive with ravishing, pre-12 tone Ginastera style writing. Plus it's 1970s Eyewitness News theme music needle drop GOLD. You can hear very clearly how, as a 16-year-old listener, I was inspired to become both a composer AND a TV News cameraman.
haha. Love this comment, Tom. COOL HAND LUKE is one of my favorites. In fact I have thought about writing an essay about how the music to THE CINCINNATI KID is bad and the music to COOL HAND LUKE is good. They were essentially back to back for Schifrin, and two of his most famous movies
Thanks for this. I don't play anything by Schriffin or Mandel, but I love playing Mancini's "Dreamsville" (which I first heard as sung by Carla White) and "Moon River." You've given me some new music to audit.
Meanwhile, I'd like to add André Previn to your list of Hollywood crossovers. I can't call to mind anything he wrote, but he did have a hit with "Modern Jazz Performances of Songs from My Fair Lady," his collaboration with Shelley Manne. In Hollywood, he won four Academy Awards between 1958 and 1964, for Scoring of a Musical Picture or Scoring of Music--adaptation or treatment.
He has a story of Hollywood studio trouble-making, when he had a copyist task, producing a conductor's score for a studio orchestra. If I understand his story, it seems that such a score has the parts transposed. to facilitate conductor sight-reading. Previn presented the score with all parts shown as on the musicians' own music, i.e., some parts in C, some in Bb, horn in F, etc. Then he and a friend enjoyed the conductor trying to keep it together... If I'm remembering all this correctly, he was called on the carpet for this stunt. But he kept his job.
UPDATE: I made a mistake in the first draft, writing in the lede that Mancini died recently, when he died in 1994. I was thinking of the Mancini centennial, which was last year.
I wrote three pieces about Mancini for #Mancini100
"Nothing to Lose" https://iverson.substack.com/p/tt-392-nothing-to-lose-by-henry-mancini
"A Warm Shade of Ivory" https://iverson.substack.com/p/tt-393-henry-mancini-a-warm-shade
"With Marian McPartland" https://iverson.substack.com/p/tt-394-henry-mancini-and-marian-mcpartland
Just before Mandel died, I wrote a fairly detailed analysis of his scores to HARPER and POINT BLANK
https://iverson.substack.com/p/tt-216-johnny-mandels-music-for-harper
Would love to hear your take on the Schifrin-Sade record, a first-rate third-stream outing in my opinion.
new to me! Thanks
Wait! I do know this record. I was like "Who's Sade?" but you meant Marquis De Sade. LOL. I like Richard Davis on it. But actually not sure about Schifrin's own jazz piano solos really. Still a cool record though
The modern dance club at my high school choreographed a whole suite based on Schifrin/Sade. Pretty sophisticated stuff for 1968. Anyway it put me onto the album, which is still on my shelf, and when I got to Verve 25 years later, I put it on the CD reissue list—not a commercial decision but a perk of being the boss 😎
a great decision! Thanks Chuck!!!!
I remember my delight in that appearing on CD out of nowhere. Great move!
Lalo did a sequel in 2000, Return of the Marquis De Sade, which is somewhat less eccentric than the original. Cheers!
Not THAT Sade!
I was on my way over here to mention Marquis de Sade, a record I have loved since I was a teenager. Thank you, SvenErik!
Same here, it was the only jazz-adjacent LP in my parents’ record collection and I cherish it to this day.
I think my jazz-loving courtesy uncle must have given it to us. I am sure it was my first exposure to Purcell, among other composers.
Schifrin's theme for the seventies TV show 'Mannix' is up there with his best work - propulsive, energetic and breathless.
A great one. Jazz waltz.
So many Schiffrin movies to revisit.. I remember liking the Aegean-tinged ESCAPE TO ATHENA and genre appropriate MAGNUM FORCE and LOVE AND BULLETS.. though am no expert. Your DANUBE INCIDENT cue is also very nice, they play it on my local jazz radio station in Portland OR on the hour when they need to fill x-amount of minutes. I transcribed it to check out the counterpoint and sometimes can even convince guys to play it on the gig!
dang that it is nice to hear. I perhaps should have said in the post: "Ben and I play parts on 'Danube Incident' closely modeled on Schifrin's original"---meaning I truly have nothing to do with that great counterpoint, it is all Lalo.
Thanks for this. Of the three, my favorite, by far is Mandel. He wrote great, swinging jazz charts for big bands, and my nomination for one of the great movie themes, "Emily," for "The Americanization Of Emily" I saw it in its initial release on a big screen, and fell in love with that theme! Toward the ends of the '90s, at Joe Segal's Jazz Showcase, vocalist Jackie Allen introduced me to the delightful Mercer lyric (which I doubt was written for the film). Talk about legs -- live recordings of Bill Evans and Paul Desmond reveal that the tune was part of their regular repertoire to the ends of both of their lives.
As long as people are bringing up other jazz-adjacent Hollywood composers, what about Gil Mellé? His theme for Kolchak: The Night Stalker was fantastic, really affected me as a kid.
The COLUMBO episode "Death Lends a Hand" with Robert Culp and Ray Milland is one of the greatest of the series. Gil Mellé's tremendous contribution has not just conventional jazzy scoring but also avant electronic techniques. I just love it
Listening now: thanks for the rec!
I remember seeing a talk show in the 70s or 80s and the guest was going to be in a new series. They talked about the series music and he said I don't want any of that old Lalo Schiffin crap. It didn't go over well. Dead silence. I forgot who said it.
Wasn't Neal Hefti a semicrossover? He and Bobby Troup wrote what I think is the last great song written for a movie, Girl Talk.
A local college radio announcer was quite fond of the big band music written for the TV show, Burke's Law. I don't know the writer.
Another great essay, Ethan!
Both John Williams and Michel Legrand fall into this rare category of jazz pianists turned tunesmiths and film composers!
Thanks Peter! Absolutely right of course. But the movie music of Mandel, Mancini, and Schifrin SOUNDS like jazz. John Williams much less so, a few things notwithstanding. We obviously know Williams for the symphonic scoring. (However I heard him play "All the Things You Are" recently and was impressed.) As for Legrand, while his songs are beloved by jazz cats, the scores are again not that jazzy--but in this case I have no doubt there's plenty that I don't know. At any rate The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is its own universe--which, of course, is very much to Legrand's credit.
I think it was the low-budget Gerard Butler film Cop Shop that used the theme from Dirty Harry--what a great piece of music.
right on
Afraid we'll have to agree to disagree when it comes to Schifrin’s title song for The Cincinnati Kid. For me it's as representative of 1965 pop culture cool as a Ford Mustang from that year. But maybe that's because I'm from Ohio.
Please don't tell me you also don't like the discofied Black Widow LP!
https://youtu.be/EYt0Zxnzw-g?si=t3JFklPNs3bY3Cvt
well, all I can say is that I've never heard a cover of "The Cincinnati Kid" by anyone, ever, anywhere, even though it was a famous movie, famous composer, and famous singer.
A mountain for you to climb someday.
🤣
Lalo Schifrin composed the theme for the 70s TV show Mannix.
I happened catch this episode earlier in the week:
Mannix Time Out of Mind S4.E3
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0641690/fullcredits/
Mannix tries to find a Black former boxing champion played by Brock Peters who's suspected of murdering a fight-fixer known for corrupting young fighters.
Features Kim Hamilton as Hallie Woods a jazz singer.
There's a jazz club scene I could swear it was Barney Kessel.
There's some scorching jazz guitar in the background.
I'm sure some veteran LA Hollywood / TV in the band I couldn't ID.
Tried finding online, but seems the only place to watch is Plex or if you have the DVD Mannix Box set.
RIP Lalo Schifrin
EyeGo
Some gems in there to be sure!
OK, I realize the main thrust of your piece is respectful of Mancini, but "a few hit tunes"? A FEW? I thought about it for thirty seconds and came up with: The Peter Gunn Theme; Moon River; Charade; The Days of Wine and Roses; The Sweetheart Tree; Two for the Road; Moment to Moment; Mr. Lucky; The Pink Panther Theme; Baby Elephant Walk. To say nothing of tunes that arguably weren't "hits" but became standards, like Dreamsville.
I love Mancini but many of his hits are cameos, meaning: the best version of cliches. Due respect, but he's no Gershwin, Kern, or Monk when it comes to melodic inspiration. The only two Mancini melodies regularly called on common practice gigs are "The Days of Wine and Roses" and "Moon River." However I have played "Moment to Moment," "Nothing to Lose," and "Charade" in public, the last one even on record with Tootie and Ben.
I wrote three pieces about Mancini, the most relevant to your agitated comment is this one:
https://iverson.substack.com/p/tt-394-henry-mancini-and-marian-mcpartland
A couple of very good Mancini-inspired albums I can think of tho...the one by Sarah Vaughan, and, particularly, Mainly Mancini by Tony Coe
I couldn't agree more. And there was the song, Whistling in the Dark, which Mancini and Johnny Mercer wrote for Julie Andrews in the movie, Star!
And maybe one of the loveliest melodies ever, Dear Heart.
Dreamsville is one of the most evocative pieces of music ever written.
And let's not forget Mancini's bravura writing for Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria.
https://youtu.be/xhUYSGHTHiA?si=ZrBpI2hJKiZVR8mN
Lalo and I shared a publisher - the great Lauren Keiser. Lauren's recent passing was a real blow to our very dedicated, very niche corner of the music world. Here's what I have decided is my favorite stretch of non-"Mission", non-"Dirty Harry" Lalo Schifrin scoring. This music alive with ravishing, pre-12 tone Ginastera style writing. Plus it's 1970s Eyewitness News theme music needle drop GOLD. You can hear very clearly how, as a 16-year-old listener, I was inspired to become both a composer AND a TV News cameraman.
haha. Love this comment, Tom. COOL HAND LUKE is one of my favorites. In fact I have thought about writing an essay about how the music to THE CINCINNATI KID is bad and the music to COOL HAND LUKE is good. They were essentially back to back for Schifrin, and two of his most famous movies
Thanks for this. I don't play anything by Schriffin or Mandel, but I love playing Mancini's "Dreamsville" (which I first heard as sung by Carla White) and "Moon River." You've given me some new music to audit.
Meanwhile, I'd like to add André Previn to your list of Hollywood crossovers. I can't call to mind anything he wrote, but he did have a hit with "Modern Jazz Performances of Songs from My Fair Lady," his collaboration with Shelley Manne. In Hollywood, he won four Academy Awards between 1958 and 1964, for Scoring of a Musical Picture or Scoring of Music--adaptation or treatment.
He has a story of Hollywood studio trouble-making, when he had a copyist task, producing a conductor's score for a studio orchestra. If I understand his story, it seems that such a score has the parts transposed. to facilitate conductor sight-reading. Previn presented the score with all parts shown as on the musicians' own music, i.e., some parts in C, some in Bb, horn in F, etc. Then he and a friend enjoyed the conductor trying to keep it together... If I'm remembering all this correctly, he was called on the carpet for this stunt. But he kept his job.
Thanks for comment. My friend Matthew Guerrieri has a complete (!?) overview of Previn the jazz pianist here: https://www.sohothedog.com/previnjazz/