Henry Mancini's Peter Gunn theme. Lalo Schifrin's Mission: Impossible theme. John Barry's arrangement of the James Bond
theme. These iconic melodies have remained a part of the pop culture
landscape since their debuts in the late 1950s and early '60s: a "golden
decade" that highlighted an era when movie studios and TV production
companies employed full orchestral ensembles to provide a jazz backdrop
for the suspenseful adventures of secret agents, private detectives,
cops, spies and heist-minded criminals. Hundreds of additional films and
television shows made during this period were propelled by similarly
swinging title themes and underscores, many of which have (undeservedly)
faded into obscurity. This meticulously researched book traces the
embryonic use of jazz in mainstream entertainment from the early
1950s--when conservative viewers still considered this genre "the
devil's music"--to its explosive heyday throughout the 1960s. Fans
frustrated by the lack of attention paid to jazz soundtrack
composers--including Jerry Goldsmith, Edwin Astley, Roy Budd, Quincy
Jones, Dave Grusin, Jerry Fielding and many, many others--will find
solace in these pages (along with all the information needed to enhance
one's music library). The exploration of action jazz continues in this
book's companion volume, Crime and Action Jazz on Screen Since 1971.
Derrick Bang
(Autor)
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