CD Reviews: 25th Hour and The Pirate
25th Hour ***
TERENCE BLANCHARD
Hollywood 2061-62383-2
15 tracks - 57:10
Spike Lee's latest "joint" is a coming of age story in which a convicted
heroin dealer realizes, over the course of his last day as a free man,
that his life has been ruined and he's to blame. To emphasize the tragic
aspects of this scenario, Lee sets the story in New York shortly after
9/11. The director also uses the film's soundtrack to great effect, surrounding
the fallen man and his city with jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard's melancholy
score.
Unfortunately, this music's emotional force largely disappears when
it is removed from the visual contexts of Lee's story. This may be because
Blanchard relies heavily, almost obsessively, upon a single, simple motif,
a contrapuntal arrangement that sets a rising melody against a falling
one. In the picture, the constant reiteration of this figure is effective,
because it augments the drug dealer's sense of isolation and his inability
to escape from the consequences of his past. Outside of the picture, however,
it's just repetitious.
Fortunately, Blanchard does interpret his ubiquitous theme through diverse
styles (ranging from cool jazz to Irish folk) and this variety softens
the score's monotony a bit. He also fuses styles together, and the results
are gratifying. With "Open Title," the album's prettiest cut, he grafts
the "Arabic vocals" of Cheb Mami onto a wall of symphonic strings and winds.
In the middle of "Fu Montage," a composite of cues, he lays a piano blues
part over hushed drums and french horns to create a rich, elegiac sound
that pays homage to New Orleans funeral music. Occasionally, he also loosens
the score's rhythms, allowing the music to drift to interesting places
as he and his players improvise. On "Double Happiness," for instance, Blanchard's
muted trumpet and Brandon Owens' bass float and dart through the air like
hummingbirds. As pleasant as these moments are, they're still variations
upon a single theme that receives far too much attention and loses its
charm after just a few tracks. It's difficult, of course, to blame Blanchard
for taking this route, since it works better with picture. But recommending
this album without reservations isn't easy either. -- Stephen Armstrong
The Pirate ****
COLE PORTER
Rhino Handmade RHM2 77628
19 tracks - 68:57
During a recent stay at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel (by no means
a regular occurrence for this impoverished freelancer), I had an opportunity
to psychically commune with the late Cole Porter (1891-1964) via his weathered
Steinway piano. Although unceremoniously stashed in a corner of the lobby,
this antiquated grand still seems charged with an otherworldly life force,
as though those ivories couldn't possibly calm down after creating such
extraordinary history.
Part of that legendary legacy was Porter's score for the 1948 MGM musical
The Pirate. If a movie can be both boldly brilliant and wildly uneven,
it would be this sumptuous, flawed masterpiece. Alongside director Vincente
Minnelli's equally audacious 1945 cult extravaganza Yolanda and the
Thief, The Pirate is an unusually vibrant blossom with a daydreaming
19th century heroine at its Technicolor center.
Based on S.N. Behrman's mildly successful non-musical play, this sly
swashbuckling spoof was re-fashioned to showcase Metro's reigning musical
comedy talents, Judy Garland and Gene Kelly. Porter provided an original
score highlighted by the archly inventive lyrics that were the composer's
calling card -- In Kelly's solo, "Nina," Porter outdoes himself by including
"schizophrenia," "neurasthenia," and "gardenia" in the delightfully deranged
rhyme scheme.
Despite Porter's dazzling, acrobatic wordplay, the score, like the film
itself, is oddly lopsided and produced only one certified classic, the
raucous "Be A Clown" (the melody of which was later "appropriated" by producer
Arthur Freed for "Make 'Em Laugh" from Singin' In The Rain.) Still,
there are a number of exquisite compensations.
Although Garland was an emotional train wreck during production of The
Pirate, she remained the consummate performer, thrilling listeners
with the rousing camp anthem, "Mack The Black" and offering a poignant
rendition of the overlooked ballad "Love of My Life."
The instrumental "Pirate Ballet," arranged by Lennie Hayton and gloriously
orchestrated by Leo Arnaud, is the commanding, testosterone-drenched centerpiece
of the film and this audio collection. Even divorced from the indelible
image of a sinewy Kelly romping in snug buccaneer briefs, this track retains
every ounce of its primal potency.
This Turner Classic Movies Music/Rhino Handmade version of the soundtrack
is characteristically meticulous, with most of the selections presented
in surprisingly rich stereo. The enhanced fidelity is a dramatic improvement
over the Sony Music Special Products edition released in 1991 (that issue
included choice snippets of dialogue). I'm sure Judy, Gene and the incomparable
Cole would be exceedingly proud. -- Mark Griffin
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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