Press Release from Quartet:
Quartet Records, in collaboration with GDM and Universal Music Publishing Ricordi, presents a completely revised, remastered edition of the catchy Ennio Morricone score for AD OGNI COSTO (aka GRAND SLAM), a 1967 comedy-caper movie directed by Giuliano Montaldo, starring Janet Leight, Edward G. Robinson, Klaus Kinski, Robert Hoffmann and Adolfo Celi. The story is about Professor James Anders, who, upon retiring, presents a famous criminal with an elaborate plan to rob a diamond company in Brazil with a team of professionals. The men meet in Rio de Janeiro and encounter an unexpected problem: a new alarm system called Grand Slam 70.
The original score by Ennio Morricone adds atmosphere and sophistication, helping to balance the mix of intrigue, action and glamour that defines the tone of the film. His work is based on a hybrid architecture that combines modal jazz, Brazilian bossa nova and Italian pop music from the 1960s. Far from being an eclectic sum or a simple collage of styles, Morricone works with these influences as overlapping layers that construct an autonomous musical discourse.
The album was released in a short promotional run by RCA in Italy in 1967 and reissued on LP in the 1980s by the Intermezzo label. In the 1990s, the same program appeared for the first time on CD, also by RCA. In 2010, an expanded edition, featuring virtually the entire score, was released on CD by GDM. This new edition, supervised by Claudio Fuiano and restored and mastered by Chris Malone. The booklet includes an essay by Miguel Angel Ordóñez that discusses both film and score.
