Seven more classic films of the '50s & '60s (some rarely seen, all by great directors) with classic jazz scores composed by and featuring jazz musicians—real and fictional—on screen, off screen, and (in most cases) both.
Curated by Ed Cardoni
Starring Warren Beatty as a nightclub comedian, Mickey One teamed the actor up with director Penn two years before their critical and popular success with the epochal Bonnie & Clyde (1967). Musically, the score reunited composer/arranger Eddie Sauter & tenor saxophonist Stan Getz, not long after their own groundbreaking collaboration on Focus (1961).
About Focus: "A year or two shy of his bossa nova success,* Stan Getz set his mind to improvising against a backdrop of darkish yet scintillating string charts. The orchestral muscle was provided by arranger Eddie Sauter; the heady and fluid horn lines, of course, came from Getz. The jazz star might have been all airy samba fog to some, but on this classic date [in 1961] he really showed his expansive horn talents: whether leaping and yelping on such galvanizing sides as 'I'm Late, I'm Late' or ingeniously responding to the many shades heard in a grand ballad like 'I Remember When,' Getz is never short on ideas or panache. Admittedly Getz's most challenging date and arguably his finest moment, Focus roams the vast jazz landscape outside of bop and boogaloo to fabulous and memorable effect" (Stephen Cook).
*Jazz Samba (1962), Big Band Bossa Nova (1962), Jazz Samba Encore! (1963), Getz/Gilberto (1963), and Stan Getz with Guest Artist Laurindo Almeida (1963). Incidentally, Getz's pianist on Stan Getz with Guest Artist Laurindo Almeida was Steve Kuhn, who, in a duo with singer Carol Fredette, appeared at Hallwalls on October 12, 1996 as part of a weekend celebration of poet Robert Creeley's 70th birthday.
(Arthur Penn, 1965)