CD Reviews: Requiem for a Secret Agent, Rebus and Cleopatra Jones

Requiem for a Secret Agent *** 1/2

PIERO UMILIANI (1967)

GDM Music CD Club 7004

17 tracks - 50:12
 

Rebus **1/2

LUIS BACALOV (1968)

GDM Music CD Club 7003

15 tracks - 43:00

The James Bond phenomenon of the 1960s spawned imitators worldwide, and GDM Music has resurrected a pair of Italian scores from such films. The better of the two is Requiem for a Secret Agent by the late Piero Umiliani. Umiliani captures the brassy, ballsy John Barry attitude, with cool guitars, flute and brass, while injecting his own style. (In other words: it sounds enough like Goldfinger even though it's different.) The main title, "Don't Ever Let Me Go" sung by Lydia MacDonald, has a catchy "007"-type hook and slinky shape (the album also includes a never-before-heard alternate version). There is a healthy dose of source cues, but they maintain a healthy energy level while evoking various locales, a la Earle Hagen's great scoring for I Spy. Umiliani's stab at the spy world overall is groovy, zesty and fun. The CD is largely in mono, with a 6:08 concluding track of source music in stereo. Producer Roberto Zamori's liner notes include an emotional remembrance of the composer in broken English; frankly, I wonder why this label does not just print liner notes in Italian, or ask someone fluent in English to proofread.

A '60s spy movie with a less satisfying score is Rebus, starring Laurence Harvey and Ann-Margret. The film takes place in Beirut and the main theme is an upbeat go-go rock piece with Arab flourishes. Most of the score appears to be comprised of source music -- casino jazz, easy listening -- and even the underscore interpolates what appears to be bluegrass, giving the score an airy, tongue-in-cheek flavor. The main theme is worked heavily throughout the suspense and action music, but it is such a light melody that it doesn't add up to much. There are two Ann-Margret vocals, "Take a Chance" (the main theme) and "Suddenly the Rain" (lounge jazz), for kitsch value. The score is lovingly presented from the original mono tapes and should please fans of the film -- although I see from the Internet Movie DataBase that the picture is "still awaiting 5 votes" to obtain a rating.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Cleopatra Jones ****

J.J. JOHNSON (1973)

Warner Music France 9362-48090-2

12 tracks - 35:24

I was introduced to blaxploitation soundtracks by the two classics of the genre: Isaac Hayes' Shaft and Curtis Mayfield's Superfly. Since that time I have bought every CD that has come out, the best being Black Caesar (James Brown), Blacula (Gene Page), The Mack (Willie Hutch) and Across 110th Street (J.J. Johnson) -- although to be honest, all it takes is a fat (phat) beat and wah-wah guitar to make me happy. The best blaxploitation soundtracks also have lush strings and big horn sections, and Cleopatra Jones (also by Johnson, who died last February) is exemplary in both areas.

Unfortunately, while the blaxploitation films almost always have great soundtracks, the films themselves are often on the slack/dull side -- as films rather than cultural statements, that is. Many were made on the cheap and show it. I have not seen Cleopatra Jones, but it is one of the more recognizable film titles, starring Tamara Dobson as the title character (the "other" Pam Grier) -- a drug-fighting, female James Bond character -- and Shelley Winters as the heavy! I wonder if she is as good as Nichelle Nichols as the evil madame in Truck Turner...if you want to hear the most vile four-letter words come out Uhura's mouth, catch that Jonathan Kaplan-directed turkey next time it's on Starz.

Many of the blaxplotation soundtracks were collaborations between name artists (James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield) and their bands and arrangers, who did the actual scoring. How much the headliner "wrote" probably varied and remains largely unknown. Certainly Isaac Hayes pioneered the instrumentation in Shaft, but Curtis Mayfield relied on arranger Johnny Pate to translate his ideas for Superfly into the finished charts. Whatever the case may be, J.J. Johnson is more than acknowledged as an influential trombonist, composer and arranger, and his work here surpasses his exemplary score for Across 110thStreet. The several interpolated songs by other artists mesh well into the underscore, as do instrumental tracks credited not to Johnson but to Joe Simon (including the title track) and Carl Brandt. Overall, Cleopatra Jones is among the most muscular and orchestral scores of the genre, nicely presented in dynamic stereo by Warner Music France. Curiously, the orchestra panning appears to be reversed on a few tracks (high strings should be in the left channel, not the right), but I don't have the LP, so I don't know if this was always the case, intentionally or otherwise.

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