Anatomy of a Murder: From the Soundtrack of the Motion Picture (1959 Film)
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List Price:
$9.98
Hungary Hotels Travel Price: $15.98
Subject To Change Without Notice
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Sony
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0074646556924
Format: Extra tracks
Label: Sony
Manufacturer: Sony
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Sony
Release Date: 1999-04-27
Studio: Sony
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Editorial Reviews:
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"I like playing with music and its relationship to the theater, particularly in the supporting role," Duke Ellington remarked in an audio interview from the reissue of his splendid soundtrack to Otto Preminger's 1959 film, Anatomy of a Murder. "Doing the score for a picture really calls for being along with the action and absorbing all of the atmosphere [of] everything taking place in the picture." But as this CD--which includes 14 alternate takes--shows, the syncopated swing and soul Ellington and his men lay down steal the show. Just as Preminger moves and shapes his actor's characters, Ellington creates musical motifs that bring out the best in his musicians as well as the story line. The orchestra sets the pace with the fanfare-ish "Main Title," with tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves's candlelight tones. Johnny Hodges's upwardly mobile alto-sax cries signify the femme-fatale, hip-swinging rhythms of "Flirtibird," which segues into the finger-snapped "Way Early Subtone," with Russell Procope's cool clarinet. Other standouts include the ballad "Low Key Lightly," costarring Ellington's regal piano and Ray Nance's serenading violin, while "Midnight Indigo" is harmonically haunted by Ellington's crystalline celesta chords, Billy Strayhorn's telepathic piano comping, and Harry Carney's soul-stirring baritone sax. The insightful and authoritative notes by historian Phil Schaap and Wynton Marsalis, along with the alternate and rehearsal takes, give the listener a comprehensive overview into the movie's themes of murder, romance, and intrigue that Duke Ellington so brilliantly augmented and illuminated through jazz improvisation, big-band orchestration, and the blues. --Eugene Holley Jr.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Music, Questionable Mastering Choices
Comment: Over the years I've had a few copies of this on vinyl, both in mono and stereo. I picked up the CD for the bonus tracks and the convenience of having the album on CD.
While the liner notes (and some of the reviews) brag about the improved sound, this remastered version lacks the compression and reverb that gave the original album much of its mood and atmosphere. While this approach may add a certain "clarity," it robs the music of its emotional punch. For example, the woodwind and finger-snapping passages on "Way Early Subtone" without the compression and reverb sound flat and lifeless.
It would have been nice if they brought out the bass - both the instrument and the frequency - on some of these tunes, but in fairness they may have been limited by a less-than-ideal mix to begin with.
If you're an Ellington fanatic, you'll want this for the bonus tracks. However, it is a complement to the original album and not a replacement. Casual Ellington fans - and fans of jazz film scores - may want to check out the original instead.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Impressive!!!
Comment: This is easily one of the best jazz albums I've heard, and, as a jazz DJ, I've heard quite a few of them! Admittedly, it's not Ellington's best work, but look at what else the man composed! Most of the tracks sound more like jazz standards than parts of a film score; the album plays like a classic. This is a successful foray into film composition, and a must- have for any jazz enthusiast.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Dichotomous
Comment: That guy who said this was the closest thing we have to a vernacular American symphony needs to spend more time outside of his comfort zone! I mean, I know we all want to circle the wagons around Duke because of the indignities that such an obvious genius suffered during his lifetime: being called a "petit maitre" by his greatest supporters, having it be questioned whether he was a composer at all! Horrible. But none of this changes the fact that there are radically different levels of excellence on this record - 1) Performance - totally excellent; the Ellington band at the top of their game. 2) melodic writing and scoring - intermittently excellent: Almost Cried/Flirtibird - excellent, I'm Gonna Go Fishing (Main title/Upper and Outest) - excellent. Happy Anatomy - definitely not excellent - in fact quite generic. Clark Terry is great, but that's obvious...3) Sense of continuity and linkage - absolutely not excellent. Henry Mancini's score for Touch of Evil (for example) is ersatz Jazz, OK, agreed. But the flow of it! It's just better than this is. Give it up to Mancini! He may be shlock, but he's a master ! As composition, this is middling Ellington. People who are married to Jazz are just the wrong people to be judging this music. And Wynton says this is the best use of celeste in Jazz? I mean I know we don't like the same things, but compared to Monk's Pannonica????? We're not doing Ellington's legacy any favors by calling this a masterpiece.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Revelation
Comment: While I am no great fan of Duke Ellington's music, especially the stuff he created after 1950-52, this album is a jewel. It expanded the definition of what musical soundtracks might be, and it did so with such deep feeling, style and creativity, I can't imagine anyone grousing at this 75:00+ program of superb big- and small-ensemble jazz. It synthesizes blues, be-bop and abstract classical on a very profound level.
Other writers on this page have mentioned the musicians on the disk , but I want to mention the ways in which this composer and his ensemble created ambiance in a very tense, erotic and ambiguous motion picture. It's just what the doctor ordered.
Except for the Main Title, which sounds harshly strident to my ear, the remastering of this material wants for nothing. It is rich, deep and full, and plays well on a system with "flat," natural, output.
ANATOMY OF A MURDER marked the end of an era in which the real action of movie mysteries was implicit and ambiguous, in which the audience was called upon to actually THINK. What Jimmy Stewart, Ben Gazarra and Lee Remick brought to this project will last a lot longer than I will. But what Ellington's music did to amplify their superb performances is exceptional.
For the price of a big-city martini, you get your perennial warm-up. Five stars for a job well done.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Great Duke didn't have a clue
Comment: One wants to be kind to this album -- this is, after all, the Great Duke, the Wizard of Jazz -- but in the end one thinks of what the critic Terry Teachout has said about jazz film scores: they're "like TV," too small-scale, too cheap, too familiar. "Anatomy of a Murder" is not a bad big-band album, though one pines for Duke's melodic viruosity of yore; but he was in his Grandeur phase by now, grinding out tuneless tone poems, treating concert halls as lecture halls, and generally noodling big time. Besides, when it came to composing a film score Duke didn't have a clue. It's one thing to write themes -- "Anatomy" is full of themes -- but it's another to write compelling music with a dramatic flow, and though the jazz buff may wince at Max Steiner and Alfred Newman ("Rachmaninoff!" as they used to sneer, before they learned Rocky was pretty good himself), you can't get the main titles of "A Stolen Life" or "The Bravados" ever out of your head, or your heart, while the Duke's chords are instantly forgettable.More's the pity as this third-rate soundtrack is a first-rate album, a generous 76 minutes with excellent sound and some most interesting extra takes spiced with Duke's promo-disc platitudes, dialogue elements and Ot-to Prrrreminger. ("You've just been ginned, lieutenant!" "Grrrrin, be happy.") But even the ace producer Phil Schaap, that brilliant reconstructor of the Newport concert, couldn't heat up Mr. Freeze, and he ends the show with the sound of strangling and flatted-fifths. Not one of jazz' finest hours.
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