1/6/2022

A new year, bad weather and COVID-19 still upon us. But there is some good news. We’ll be offering our latest CDs during the week of the 18th. Music to soothe the soul, or something like that. Actually it’s more like action than soothing so maybe never mind. The artwork, contents and sound samples will be up that week so hopefully the offerings will bring some satisfaction. When not editing albums, I’m doing what many people are doing: listening to music and watching movies and television, all from home. Going to theaters is a low priority since I mostly watch stuff on 4K and Blu-ray. Catching something of genuine interest like West Side Story that way means I’m a few weeks or months behind the theater-goers but there’s so much to watch anyway that I’m ok with the delays. I saw No Time To Die after everyone else but still enjoyed it just the same. And I love building libraries.

As to music, I admit almost everything that I could jot down on a “best of 2021” list would look anachronistic… as in just about everything I’m playing is either a premiere of an older score, a reissue of an older score, an expansion of an older score, a re-mastering of an older score… you get the idea. I’m just not spending a whole lot of time with brand new scores, though some are certainly worthwhile. Jungle Cruise is rip-roaring excitement, one of James Newton Howard’s more substantial works of late. But it’s the treats like The Diary Of Anne Frank and Glory from La-La Land and Legend from Music Box and Shamus and The Eiger Sanction from our own label and so forth that most often get my ears. Though I haven’t made time yet to play them, I’m already convinced La-La Land’s Fiddler On The Roof and Quartet’s The Pink Panther: Final Chapter Collection will get considerable attention shortly. Random tidbits: The earliest Mancini credit on a soundtrack that I see in my library of dusty LPs is Rock, Pretty Baby! (1956). Shortly after that comes his orchestration credit on the back cover of Four Girls In Town (1957) and his composing credit on Summer Love (1958), all on the Decca label during his Universal years. Fun stuff for album collectors.

View more at our INTRADA SOUNDTRACK FORUM