CD Reviews: Rhino Musicals and Peter Gabriel and Jeff Tweedy
Victor/Victoria (1982) *** 1/2
HENRY MANCINI & LESLIE BRICUSSE
Turner Classic Movies Music/Rhino Movie Music R2 78248
31 tracks - 78:54
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) *** 1/2
GEORGE M. COHAN
Turner Classic Movies Music/Rhino Movie Music R2 78210
20 tracks - 51:05
Before Moulin Rouge made a big splash in 2001, the last live
action musical to win an Oscar was 1982's Victor/Victoria, the story
of a woman who plays a female impersonator. Despite mixed reviews, Victor
got seven nominations including a win for the song score by Henry Mancini
and Leslie Bricusse. Granted, Victor/Victoria isn't a musical in
the true sense of the word; most of the songs are performed as songs being
performed in front of an audience. Unlike the subsequent movie musicals
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Evita, the songs
don't advance the plot in any way. Still, the theatricality of the story
and the return to the musical form by Julie Andrews allows us to throw
semantics out the window.
The most contemporary of Rhino Movie Music/Turner Classic Movie Music
series, Victor/Victoria will be remembered for the coup de theatre
number "Le Jazz Hot," which is not only an infectious number, but a high
point in the movie. Performing a technically demanding song, Andrews' voice
was up to the challenge and never sounded better. Incidentally, the number,
as performed in the 1997 stage musical adaptation of the movie, was mostly
sung by the chorus with Andrews (reprising the role 15 years later!) saving
her voice for the finale. The rest of the movie's songs, including the
inferior yet effective "The Shady Dame from Seville," may not be top-notch
Mancini, but they are fun nonetheless.
GNP Crescendo released an expanded release of the soundtrack in the
early '90s, which included all the songs and a lot of previously unreleased
score by Mancini. This latest release adds even more underscore as well
as alternate/rehearsal takes (about 25 extra minutes). If you have the
earlier release, which is a perfectly good representation of the movie
and its music, there's no monstrous need to shell out more bucks for this
version. But for huge fans of the movie, there are many enjoyable nuggets,
including the screen version of the "You and Me" duet by Andrews and Robert
Preston.
James Cagney's star-vehicle Yankee Doodle Dandy is another film
about show biz, this one focusing on the life and music of that great showman,
George M. Cohan. Cagney won the Oscar for this performance, bucking his
usual gangster role. This soundtrack is an important addition to the library
history of movie musicals. Coming so near the beginning of America's involvement
in World War II, this movie's popularity was reflected in the seven Academy
Award nominations it received. With such patriotic songs like "You're a
Grand Old Flag," "Over There" and the title song, the movie can be credited
for a resurgence of these songs (whose popularity is still felt to this
day). What may seem corny to some is what makes the movie a classic to
others.
This is the first legitimate release of the soundtrack, odd since the
movie is all about the songs. A lot of the songs are taken from the actual
film, so unfortunately there's a lot of dialogue and sound effects included.
Most of the joy, however, is having the legendary Cagney performances on
one disc, especially my personal favorite, "Give My Regards to Broadway."
Exciting extras include a crisp sounding rehearsal rendition of "Broadway"
by Cagney, as well as an unused song, "You Remind Me of My Mother."
-- Cary Wong
Long Walk Home: The Original Score to Rabbit-Proof Fence ****
PETER GABRIEL
Real World 70876-17403-2-5
15 tracks - 58:58
Back in 1988, "New Age" music was beginning to discover its niche market
when Peter Gabriel's album of music from Scorsese's The Last Temptation
of Christ was released under the title "Passion." The recording received
a Grammy, and the score was nominated for a Golden Globe. Gabriel's latest
CD, "Long Walk Home," attempts to repeat the success of his earlier disc
by exploring a variety of "world beat" sounds while mixing in natural sounds
from the desert location of the film.
Rabbit-Proof Fence, directed by Phillip Noyce, tells the true
story of three Aborigine girls who are kidnapped in 1931 and forced into
servitude miles from their home. They manage to escape into the desert
where their only hope for survival is finding the rabbit-proof fence that
was erected across the country to deter rabbit migration -- if they find
it they will be able to follow it home.
Fans of Gabriel will be intrigued by the unique mixture of aboriginal
percussion, chants, Australian bird song, sounds of the didgeridoo and
various electronic instruments. The melding of the different sounds works
very well. "Gracie's Recapture" plays like a contemporary Barber's Adagio,
before returning to the sound effects and unusual constructions. As it
matches traditional music with the sound effects textures, it's one of
the highlights of the album, For the most part, though, the listener should
experience the disc as a meditative experience.
Those interested in this kind of music will find much to admire here,
but it may baffle others who come to the experience expecting extended,
goal-oriented pieces. It will undoubtedly be fascinating to see how this
music will match up with the film when it's released later this year. The
starkness of the landscape and the harsh desert experience depicted by
the visuals should be well served by Gabriel's sounds. In fact, notices
in the Australian press are already lauding his effort.
"Long Walk Home" is one of the more original, unusual and authentically
eclectic film scores released so far this year. Those willing to hang in
and experience the sound world Gabriel creates will be rewarded.
-- Steven A. Kennedy
Chelsea Walls ****
JEFF TWEEDY, VARIOUS
Rykodisc RCD 10624
12 tracks - 60:33
Film scores composed with rock and roll instruments and rhythms usually
flounder. And though several first-rate musicians (like Robbie Robertson,
Neil Young, Joe Strummer and even Teddy Pendergrass) have tried, it seems
that Stratocasters, bass guitars and drum sets, more often than not, lack
the expressive range movies require. Jeff Tweedy's instrumental score for
Chelsea Walls, however, may be the exception that proves this rule.
Performing with percussionist Glenn Kotche, Tweedy (the head man for
Wilco, one of the most talked about bands in the U.S. these days) works
with a stripped-down, pulsing sound that is more closely linked to Philip
Glass' Dracula than Bob Dylan's Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid.
On "Frank's Dream," for instance, he juxtaposes a slow, broken piano line
against a brushed cymbal, a minimalist strategy that packs the piece with
tremendous melancholy. "Hello, Are You There?" in contrast, develops a
menacing, paranoid rhythm with a distorted harmonica thrown against a slapping
guitar. "Finale" likewise prunes down the parts, playing the score's main
melody on guitar and countering it with soft electronica. A study in repetition,
the piece increases its emotional magnitude for 11 minutes, then climaxes
on a string of whispered piano notes.
Several conventional songs (with singers and hooks) also appear on the
record. "Promising," a previously unreleased Wilco track, presents the
band at its alt-country best; the same can be said about "When the Roses
Bloom Again," an outtake from the band's collaboration with Billy Bragg
a few years ago. Robert Sean Leonard, an actor in the film, also contributes
a pair of songs: a sentimental Lisa Loeb rip-off (the record's one misstep)
and a hillbilly number about Jesus. Jazz singer Little Jimmy Scott shows
up too, interpreting John Lennon's "Jealous Guy" with his strange, ethereal,
almost-female voice. Recorded long before the film was shot, these tracks
blend into the new material smoothly enough. That is, the singing and the
dance-floor beats complement, rather than disrupt, the attractive noise
of the other material.
A gift to Wilco fans, this album might persuade the uninitiated to check
out some of the band's other records. More important, it shows that the
rock and roll film score, when the right hands compose it, can stand side-by-side
with its jazz and classical counterparts. But who besides Tweedy, and perhaps
Ry Cooder, has these hands? -- Stephen Armstrong
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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