This album has long eluded me, but I just found a clean copy for $2. I've long had the track "Shoot to Kill" on Rhino's (excellent) Crime Jazz collection. This album is very solid, top to bottom. Q is definitely going for a Mancini album vibe, given the cheezed-out vocal chorus arrangement of the title tune.
I picked up so many albums like this in the 1990s. The vinyl scene has kind of dried up in these parts - everyone is either hip to eBay, or smug urban hipsters are snapping up vinyl without knowing what it is. Or a combination.
Anyway, it is such a thrill when I find something like this for cheap.
Of Q's Mercury soundtracks from this period, it is interesting that "The Pawnbroker" and "Deadly Affair" made it to CD, but "Mirage" and "Slender Thread" did not.
Love this score and the movie (apart from the excruciating romantic dialogue in Peter Stone's otherwise sharp script)--really wish this and In Cold Blood would get a decent CD release.
Were many of the Q scores from this period re-records? I wonder if there is a possibility of expanded releases. For example, it would be great to get a CD of "The Pawnbroker" that offered as extras the underscore without the dialog.
Funny you should mention. I am just compiling an 'ultimate Quincy' playlist. Featuring everything from his 50's jazz arrangements, through the film scores right on up to Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' (which I give HIM a lot of credit for making so successful). The score I've liked the best so far - and I have all of them is still 'Mirage'. (I transferred it to CDR over a decade ago). Mind you, one thing I don't like is a lot of the hyperbole surrounding Quincy's 'contributions' to film scoring. I find NOTHING ground-breaking about his work and the liner notes on 'The Pawnbroker/Deadly Game' CD make it sound like he invented jazz use or 'modern' textures in film-scoring. Many of the greats, from E. Bernstein through A. North and 'Jerry' were utilizing these approaches either before or concurrent with Jones. I find Jones' strength is as an arranger and I'm fine with that. Compared to so many other film composer's he was a tad melodically deprived.
...Compared to so many other film composer's he was a tad melodically deprived.
I agree with you that his strength is as an arranger - although he leaned heavily on ghost arrangers - but I think his main themes for the films I mentioned in this thread are all very strong harmonically and melodically.
Going through absolutely everything I have by him (at least 50 projects) I made the observation: he makes Lalo Schifrin look like Dimitri Tiomkin. Even Schifrin had some blockbuster themes. I find that Jones has nothing along those lines. The closest he gets to anything iconic is 'In the Heat of the Night' and that's a pretty formulaic blues number. I'll give him this though: 'In Cold Blood' contains some really chilling electric instrumentation and his 'Clutter Family Theme' is about as close as he gets to a real 'film theme'. Come to think of it, I change my mind - 'In Cold Blood' is probably the best thing he ever did. Completely approp the grizzly true story. I've also always been bothered by how much his 'Color Purple' 'theme' sounds like Delerue.
...The closest he gets to anything iconic is 'In the Heat of the Night' and that's a pretty formulaic blues number. I'll give him this though: 'In Cold Blood' contains some really chilling electric instrumentation and his 'Clutter Family Theme' is about as close as he gets to a real 'film theme'. Come to think of it, I change my mind - 'In Cold Blood' is probably the best thing he ever did. Completely approp the grizzly true story. I've also always been bothered by how much his 'Color Purple' 'theme' sounds like Delerue.
You don't think his themes to "Mirage," "The Pawnbroker," and "Deadly Affair" are solid?
Going through absolutely everything I have by him (at least 50 projects) I made the observation: he makes Lalo Schifrin look like Dimitri Tiomkin.
It sounds like you are saying that Jones is so good that he makes the great Lalo Schifrin sound like some guy I've never heard.
I'm definitely NOT saying that. As indicated, I like 'Mirage' (and 'The Pawnbroker') and especially 'In Cold Blood'. If you really don't know who Tiomkin is, I'd seriously recommend it might be time for you to do at least a cursory study of the so-called 'golden age of film music' composers to fully understand, appreciate and have context for your interest in any film music.
I'm definitely NOT saying that. As indicated, I like 'Mirage' (and 'The Pawnbroker') and especially 'In Cold Blood'. If you really don't know who Tiomkin is, I'd seriously recommend it might be time for you to do at least a cursory study of the so-called 'golden age of film music' composers to fully understand, appreciate and have context for your interest in any film music.
Lighten up, I was kidding. Did you not see the winking emoticon?
I've always loved the film Mirage - saw it three months before it came out at a sneak preview at the Chinese theater in LA. The score as heard in the film is quite terrific, save for some embarrassingly trite overly-dramatic horn bursts and mickey-mousing. But the rest is really splendid.
Love this score and the movie (apart from the excruciating romantic dialogue in Peter Stone's otherwise sharp script)--really wish this and In Cold Blood would get a decent CD release.
I have the album too, even though it was a rerecording and one of the tracks made its way on one of the "Crime Jazz" C.D.s. A special edition C.D. should be in order, considering that Universal Music owns both the original tracks and the album. According to Jones, Henry Mancini fought hard for him to get the assignment (the score was conducted by Universal Music Director Joseph Gershenson, and was the only score by Jones that wasn't conducted by him).
Love this score and the movie (apart from the excruciating romantic dialogue in Peter Stone's otherwise sharp script)--really wish this and In Cold Blood would get a decent CD release. .
