Jazz In The Movies

The sounds before I knew what Jazz was....

Movies use jazz when someone steals a car.

- Elmer Bernstein

Film making is not an individual art form. It’s a collective, almost like a jazz jam session. It’s a gestalt. The director is the brain; the cameraman is the eyes; the film editor is the DNA; the producer is the lungs; and the composer the ears.

- Lalo Schifrin

Back in October of 2020, when I started our journey down that Big River called Jazz, I wrote about “…the sound before I knew what Jazz was.” to describe the soundtracks I heard as a boy while I watched old movies on our black & white TV.

Although I didn’t know it at the time, my first introduction to Jazz came in the early 1970s, while watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies. You can read about that here:

How it all began....

…then, again, a little later while watching James Bond movies. You can read about that here:

Bond, James Bond.

Back then, I did not know those sounds were Jazz. It was just music that I liked - sounds that appealed to me for some reason at the time. It wasn’t until the late 1980s that I actually bought a movie soundtrack that I knew featured jazz music. That first soundtrack was from the 1960 Paramount movie The World Of Suzie Wong:

When I saw the album at a used record store, I remember liking the movie and the music, so I bought it.

Surprisingly, this album turned out to be a total Jazz bonanza. I have no idea who plays on it, and I’ve tried for years with no luck to identify the musicians. I don’t even know if it was recorded using Hollywood or New York musicians - but it sounds like the usual cast of West Coast characters recording in Hollywood at that time. It’s really difficult to pick just one track from this terrific score, so I’ll feature two. The first is At The Namkok:

Here is the second, Groove For Suzie #2:

The score for The World Of Suzie Wong was composed by George Duning, who would later go on to compose scores for several episodes of the original Star Trek TV series.

I find this album the pinnacle of jazz-infused soundtracks that slowly emerged from the film noir genre into prominence in the 1950s and then, by the 1970s, faded back into the shadows….

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In his fine blog titled, “Just The Sax, Ma’am” - Crime Jazz, Bill Demain wrote: “A big change in Hollywood scores began in the late 1940s, via the film noir movement. With roots in German expressionist cinematography, the shadowy style of film noir was a perfect visual foil for hardboiled crime dramas. And seminal titles like The Big Sleep, D.O.A., and Gun Crazy with their tough, cynical characters, demanded a tough, cynical kind of musical accompaniment—something to subvert the standard Hollywood treatment.

At first, dark, bluesy strains crept into traditional orchestral scores by the likes of Miklos Rosza and Alex North. By the mid-50s, composers like Mancini and Schifrin were pushing the envelope even further, writing jazz-flavored scores for smaller ensembles. For the first time ever in Hollywood soundtracks, there were improvised solos. Gradually, the violins faded out of the picture, making way for trumpets and saxophones.”

I think the big breakthrough for jazz was actually in 1953 with Leith Steven’s soundtrack for Laszlo Benedek’s The Wild One. For his soundtrack, Steven’s used the popular West Coast jazz band Shorty Rogers and His Giants, who in 1952 had released their hit 10” record, Modern Sounds. In fact, The Wild One’s Scramble sounds to me a lot like Rogers’ Apropos from that record.

From The Wild One, here is Lonely Way:

However, the jazz in this film was used primarily as background music heard on the jukebox or on a radio during scenes, rather than the basis for the soundtrack.

Franz Waxman’s 1956 Crime In The Streets soundtrack has some nice jazzy sounding tracks like Blues, which sounds at times like Ellington’s 1958 Anatomy of a Murder soundtrack; however, overall, the soundtrack is much more symphonic than jazz, but it kept the momentum of possibilities moving forward.

I think Elmer Berstein’s 1957 Sweet Smell Of Success was really the bridge soundtrack. It featured Pacific Jazz recording artist Chico Hamilton’s Quintet. I think this soundtrack really laid the groundwork for subsequent fully jazz-oriented soundtracks. For example, listen to Goodbye Baby Blues:

I think you can clearly hear the influence it had on The World Of Suzie Wong’s At The Namkok, featured above, that appeared three years later and even some of John Barry’s James Bond tunes of the 1960s. In those early days, the popularity of jazz in film was expanding even to Europe, which began perhaps with No Sun in Venice (French: Sait-on jamais...), a 1957 French-Italian drama film directed by Roger Vadim. John Lewis composed the soundtrack which was performed by the Modern Jazz Quartet.

In 1958, Miles Davis recorded in Paris the soundtrack for Louis Malle’s French thriller Ascenseur pour l’échafaud.

From that film here is Dîner au Motel:

After the success of Ascenseur pour l’échafaud, in 1959 Marcel Romano hired Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers to record the soundtrack to Edouard Molinaro’s Des femmes Disparaissent:

This was Art Blakey’s “Jazz Messengers” first European tour. From that film, here is Blues for Vava:

These two French films were the first to use the “Hard Bop Plus French Thriller” formula - a formula for Jazz in the movies that would then be continued later in American film.

In 1959, back in the United States, Duke Ellington provided the score for Otto Preminger’s thrilling Anatomy Of A Murder

From that film, here is the wonderful Low Key Lightly:

In 1960, the same year as The World Of Suzie Wong, Ranald MacDougall released The Subterraneans, a film based on Jack Kerouac’s 1958 novel of the same name. The soundtrack was by Andre Previn and featured West Coast All Stars Gerry Mulligan, Art Pepper, Russ Freeman, Art Farmer, Jack Sheldon, and many others, plus a nice vocal number by Carmen McRae. From that album, here is the cooker, Bread and Wine:

The early 1960s was really the high mark in jazz soundtracks. Along with those already mentioned, in 1961 Paramount released Henri Mancini’s Breakfast At Tiffany’s and in 1962 MGM released the sleeper movie Smog. This is a little-known film from Italian director Franco Rossi that presents an Italian’s perspective during two days in Los Angeles.

Smog was not the first jazz soundtrack I heard by far, but it remains one of my favorites. The score is by Italian composer Piero Umiliani and features both Chet Baker and Helen Merrill. This hip soundtrack sounds like West Coast Jazz meets Italian Library Music. From this gem, here’s my favorite lounge song Dawn, sung by the incomparable Helen Merrill:

By the mid-1960s, Jazz soundtracks started to include more progressive jazz scores. For example, in 1966, Sonny Rollins provided the soundtrack for the British film Alfie. This is a classic of modern jazz soundtracks and stands alone as a jazz classic. From that album, here is Alfie’s Theme:

Because I’m such a big fan of both Steve McQueen and Lalo Schifrin, I’ll quickly throw in this one from the 1969 Warner Brother’s movie Bullitt. Here’s The Aftermath of Love:

Unfortunately, by the 1970s, jazz movie soundtracks were on the decline. No longer would musicians gather in a recording studio on a regular basis to perform and record various styles of Jazz composed for films and television programs. Even James Bond movies had made the transition to more rock-based soundtracks. In 1973, the title track for Live And Let Die was performed by Paul McCartney and Wings - I remember at the time that was a real shocker. Live And Let Die is a far cry from John Barry’s Tiffany Case from Diamonds Are Forever, released just two years earlier.

It wasn’t until the late 1980s that jazz music in film made a comeback with French director Bertrand Tavernier’s Round Midnight in 1986 and Clint Eastwood’s Bird in 1988. But that’s a story for another time….

And finally, one more for the road. From Smog, here’s California In The Summer:

Next week on that Big River called Jazz, we’ll dig our paddles in and explore some of the waters of the great Sonny Rollins.

If you like what you’ve been reading and hearing so far on our journey and would like to share this with someone you think might be interested in learning more about our great American art form: Jazz, just hit the “Share” button at the bottom of the page. Also, if you feel so inclined, become a subscriber to my journey by hitting the “Subscribe” button here:

Also, find my playlist on Spotify: From Fred Astaire to Sun Ra.

Feel free to contact me at any time to talk shop. I welcome and encourage that.

Until then, keep on walking….