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Two new releases are available at www.quartetrecords.com
SERIAL (2-CD SET)
Music Composed by Lalo Schifrin
Unused Score Composed by Kenny Ascher
Limited edition of 1000 units
Quartet Records and Paramount Pictures are proud to present a 2-CD set with the world premiere release of infectious catchy score composed and conducted by legendary Argentinian-born composer Lalo Schifrin (Bullitt, Enter the Dragon, The President’s Analyst, Dirty Harry), including the also catchy unused score composed by Kenny Ascher (The Muppet Movie).
Serial, directed by Bill Persky in 1980, satirized everything annoying and excessive about ’70s hippie culture. The film was adapted from a novel by Cyra McFadden, a picaresque story that centers on a middle-aged, middle-management type who is vexed and exasperated by the strange jargon and alien behavior infecting everyone around him—including his wife and daughter.
Lalo Schifrin provided a stunning melodic score, dominated by the song “A Changing World,” with lyrics by Norman Gimbel and performed by Michael Johnson. This tune is the key theme of a score in which you can find disco seventies music, hippie sitar sounds, jazz waltzes, frantic orchestral chases and a beautiful love theme. A hidden gem in the filmography of the composer!
Curiously, the Schifrin score was not the first choice for the film. Kenny Ascher (two-time Oscar nominated for The Muppet Movie) composed and recorded first a score that was rejected. Ascher's music is charming and melodic. It is written in essentially the same style as Schifrin’s—in fact, both scores are perfectly interchangeable.
The album has been remixed and mastered from the well-preserved 24-channel multi-tracks, courtesy of Paramount Pictures; the package includes liner notes by Tim Greiving, who discusses the film and both scores.
Also available:
LA POLIZIA INTERVIENE: ORDINE DI UCCIDERE!
Music Composed by Paolo Vasile
Limited edition of 500 units
Quartet Records and Gruppo Sugar present the premiere release of a classic poliziottescho score written by Paolo Vasile.
Co-written and directed by Giuseppe Rosati, La polizia interviene: ordine di uccidere! (aka The Left Hand of the Law) (1975) is a classic poliziottescho that introduces the character of Captain Mario Murri, played by Leonard Mann. After the kidnapping of a wealthy industrialist, Murri is set to be transferred to Rome in order to stop the investigation that could reach powerful people like a senator and his male lover (played by James Mason and Stephen Boyd). Murri decides to carry on regardless, even if it could end his career...
The music was written by Paolo Vasile, the son of producer Turi Vasile. Despite this being his first score, Vasile clearly masters the poliziottescho sound with a funky opening theme which shows how the bustling of the city also means that a crime is always just around the corner. While a suspenseful mission is scored with unique flute and percussion effects and Murri’s character has its own lonesome ballad, the main theme dominates the score.
Two cues from the score were originally released on a 45RPM single by CAM, but these were significantly different from their film counterparts. This CD marks the premiere release of the score, mastered by Claudio Fuiano from the first-generation stereo master tapes. The booklet features liner notes by Gergely Hubai discussing the film and the score.
For order, more info and listen audio samples, please visit www.quartetrecords.com
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Serial is a great film. I was in love with Tuesday Weld when I was a sophomore and this movie came out. I am really stoked for this release- don't recall the music, but it's Lalo Schifrin-nuff said.
Never heard of the film, but I've ordered this. To be honest, it's hardly the most memorable thing Schifrin has ever done but it's a fairly nice sort of orchestral light pop. From the samples, Ascher's score is much the same and - actually - I prefer his to Lalo's!
Also ordered the Paolo Vasile score as I love poliziottescho scores. And it sounds a bit different to the lightweight synth and conga stuff that we've been getting from some Italian composers recently which does start to sound a bit samey and interchangeable...
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Double post
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Posted: |
Aug 19, 2015 - 4:57 PM
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By: |
Bob S
(Member)
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Sincere thanks to everyone at Quartet and Paramount who had a hand in bringing Serial to disc. Thirty-five years was long enough to wait. Yes, it sounds different for Schifrin; it's not another Bullitt or Mission Impossible crime and espionage thriller score. Schifrin's light, deft, jazzy touch here was just what this film, the first truly mad comedy of the 80s, required. And no, despite what's said in the jacket blurb, Serial is not about San Francisco Hippies. It's a send up of the rise of Yuppie culture in Marin County in the late 1970s, 10 years post-Hippie. For anyone who was there at the time, Serial was excruciatingly, can't-catch-my-breath funny. Most of the gags hold up well even today.
Sound quality for this set is superb. I only hope this means somebody might also be working on a similarly attentive digital restoration of the movie itself. Serial's treatment on home video to date has been no better than shabby. Make a Blu-ray available and I will be first in line to buy it.
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Yes, I've never seen the film but Serial is a frothy, light and fairly enjoyable score - not all that different from Ascher's really. Not quite sure why they felt the need to change composer.
If I'm honest, it's not top-drawer Schifrin and there's nothing that's all that memorable (for me anyway) but a welcome addition to Schifrin's discography. People who don't like the disco stylings should probably stay clear.
Now, where's Escape to Athena?
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There are WAY TOO MANY amazing Lalo Schifrin soundtracks that have yet to be released on CD.
This situation is an absolute crime that needs to be rectified IMMEDIATELY.
He is, after all, one of only TWO remaining "Top GREATEST Film Composers Of All Time" that is thankfully still with us... Now that John Barry, Jerry Goldsmith, Henry Mancini, Bernard Herrmann, Elmer Bernstein, Basil Poledouris, and most recently Ennio Morricone, are sadly no longer with us, only he and John Williams remain... That fact should be acknowledged and celebrated by soundtrack labels... instead of overlooked, as the ridiculous amount of still-unreleased Lalo Schifrin scores sadly demonstrates, even after all these years.
My top unreleased Lalo Schifrin scores that needed to come out EONS AGO include:
MURDERERS' ROW
ESCAPE TO ATHENA
THE NUDE BOMB
BLACK MOON RISING
CHARLEY VARRICK
ST IVES
STARSKY & HUTCH
LOVE AND BULLETS
And, as stated before, many more.... WAY TOO MANY.
Some label should have had SOMETHING released this month to coincide with Lalo Schifrin's 90th birthday on June 21st...
What a tragically missed opportunity.
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) of TV soundtracks!!!!