Jazz In Film (Film Score Anthology)

The jazz soundtrack must provide musical accompaniment to a movie and, of course, it must swing. That's what New Orleans trumpeter Terence Blanchard does so well on this recording, which features noir-nuanced renditions of nine film selections from 1951 to 1995. Blanchard, a graduate of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and a noted film composer in his own right, is joined by two Jazz Messengers alumni, alto saxophonist Donald Harrison and trombonist Steve Turre. The late pianist Kenny Kirkland, bassist Reginald Veal, and drummer Carl Allen complete the rhythm section while special guest tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson offers his elliptical improvisations, with conductor Steve Mercurio's simpatico strings weaving a finely textured harmonic quilt. Blanchard takes Alex North's "A Streetcar Named Desire" down home with Turre's Coltrane-quoted solo and Harrison's Bird-like nod to Gershwin. Jerry Goldsmith's steely "Chinatown" is rendered mournfully, and Andr© Previn's "The Subterraneans" is buoyed by Veal's delicious walking bass lines and Henderson's neocubist sax lines. Duke Ellington--who wrote the book on jazz soundtracks--is loved madly by the crew on his immortal "Anatomy of a Murder." Quincy Jones's "The Pawnbroker" is peppered by Allen's drum-brushed, soft-shoe rhythms, as is Bernard Hermann's "Taxi Driver," the former with Harrison's soulful horn work and the latter featuring Henderson's moody, melodramatic musings. Elmer Bernstein's "Man with the Golden Arm" has a fast-paced, fugal introduction that segues into a boppish melodic line, and Blanchard saves the best for last on his own spectral score for Spike Lee's antihood movie, "Clockers," with the trumpeter's pathos-pulsed solo and Kirkland's spotlight, which reminds us of why we will miss him. --Eugene Holley