: Later, as hard boiled fiction "matured" in the 40s, film
noir became
: a style and at about the same time, bebop or "cool" jazz
played by
: combos became voguish. "The Phantom Lady" (1944), from
Cornell
: Woolrich's novel, has both big band and small combo scenes,
with
: Elisha Cook, Jr., memorably, as a drummer.
Mind you, Cook wasn't playing in the cool school. That was
some crazy
mad stuff his band was blowing, and as the scene goes on it
gets
wilder and scarier.
: I remember at least two noir titles from the 50s where the
jazz
: score was inseparable from the action: "Odds Against
Tomorrow" (John
: Lewis score) and "The Man With the Golden Arm" (Elmer
Bernstein
: score).
Bernstein did the score for _Some Came Running_, which also
starred
Sinatra. It's not exactly hardboiled, although it does have a
couple
of the characteristics of noir movies. It reminded me that if
your
life has an Elmer Bernstein soundtrack, you're in serious
trouble.
I've said this before (perhaps here), but I'll say it again:
Mickey
Spillane and Charlie Mingus go together well. There are
moments of
intense anger and frustration in each, as well as periods of
blissful
calm. Mingus was about as volatile as Hammer, too.
If anyone hasn't listened to the Charlie Haden Quartet West
albums, I
highly recommend them. _Always Say Goodbye_ is one of the
best of the
four or five they've done. There's a quote from a Chandler
book in
the liner notes to one album, and he draws heavily on film
noir. Very
atmospheric.
When I think music that goes with hardboiled fiction, I
usually think
of the standard big-band stuff that would be coming out of
the radios
in the '40s. A canary singing, trumpet section blowing, big
shout
chorus and then an ad for Lucky Strikes. That's not for the
rich (and
often corrupt) people, though - they listen to classical
music.
Bill
--
William Denton | Toronto, Canada | http://www.vex.net/~buff/ | Caveat lector.
"It is better to incur a mild rebuke than to perform an onerous task."
-- "Uncle" Oswald Hendryks Cornelius
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