Billy May -- Johnny Cool Complete Soundtrack -- Part I

Featuring:

1. The Lizard

2. Window Washer

3. Dare's Affair

Liner Notes:

Fabled in jazz circles, if relatively unknown to the general public, Billy May only had a small number of opportunities to write a full-scale score for motion pictures, but his music for the 1963 gangster film Johnny Cool expemplifies his storied genius.

May loved extremes, and his "primary weapon is contrast", according to Will Friedwald in his book. "Each sound that comes must be radically different from that sound that preceded it; a high string passage that's already a stalactite more chilling than you'd expect must be followed by a reed ensemble that oozes enough slurping vibrato to out reverberate an entire section of Ben Websters..."

The Twelve selections correspond with the film's overheated atomosphere. The hard-driving songs verge on frenetic, with a high-note man that May loved, Bud Brisbois, sounding almost out of control. That's Justin Gordon on tenor sax and Don Fagerquist on the muted trumpet solos. Sammy Davis Jr. sings a Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn song, "The Ballad Of Johnny Cool," which is a typical title song of the period, while May's own "Bee Boom," which Davis tosses over the final credits, is a jewel, brimming with sly, ambiguous humor.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Johnny
• Cool
• Soundtrack
• Score
• Music
• Billy
• May
• Henry
• Silva
• Elizabeth
• Montgomery
• Gangster
• Movies