Intrada plans to release two CDs next week.

Tomorrow night (Saturday, May 11), the Golden State Pops Orchestra is presenting a concert celebrating the 35th Anniversary of Varese Sarabande, with scheduled appearances by John Debney, Cliff Eidelman, Danny Elfman, Michael Giacchino, Mark Isham, Christopher Lennertz, Joel McNeely, Diego Navarro, John Powell, Brian Tyler, Austin Wintory and Hans Zimmer. The concert is currently sold out, but their e-mail address is tickets@gspo.com if you want to inquire about their standby ticket policy.

Intrada plans to release one new Special Collection CD next week.

Groundbreaking stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen died in London on Tuesday, May 7th at the age of 92. Harryhausen was perhaps the only visual effects artist who could truly be called an auteur, as he was unusually involved with the development and production of nearly all of his films, which included many fantasy classics which inspired several generations of filmmakers and fans (including myself -- Harryhausen, Alfred Hitchcock, and Bernard Herrmann, who worked extensively with both filmmakers, were my holy trinity when I was a teenage film obsessive). Harryhausen never won the Visual Effects Oscar, though his first feature, the original Mighty Joe Young, won in that category for Harryhausen's mentor and inspiration, King Kong animator Willis O'Brien, but Harryhausen did win the Academy's 1991 Gordon E. Sawyer Award for his contribution to effects filmmaking. On that year's Oscar ceremony, Tom Hanks remarked that for many, Citizen Kane is the greatest film ever made, but for him it's Jason and the Argonauts. Besides his behind-the-camera contributions, Harryhausen had cameos in his friend John Landis' films Spies Like Us (in a scene with Terry Gilliam, cinematographer Robert Paynter and miniature effects master Derek Meddings), Beverly Hills Cop III and Burke and Hare, and made a brief but charming appearance in the remake of Mighty Joe Young alongside the original film's leading lady, Terry Moore.  Along with cherished films and unforgettable effects sequences -- including the destruction of Washington D.C. in Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, the rampage of the Cyclops from 7th Voyage of Sinbad, the battle with the skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts, the roping of an Allosaurus in The Valley of Gwangi, the swordfight with the six-armed Kali statue in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, and the stalking of the Medusa of Clash of the Titans -- Harryhausen's films and effects inspired some of the finest and most beloved film music ever written. The following are his features and their composers:

The latest CD from Kritzerland features George Duning's score for the 1960, Hong Kong-set romantic drama THE WORLD OF SUZIE WONG, pairing William Holden and Nancy Kwan. RCA released a selection of Duning cues on LP at the time of the film's release, while the Kritzerland Suzie Wong features Duning's complete score in film order, followed by extras including album versions of several cues.

La-La Land has announced an impressive slate of CD releases for May and June, including Shirley Walker's terrific score for the underrated remake of WILLARD; a new edition of Jerry Goldsmith's '60s Western BANDOLERO; an expanded two-disc set of John Williams' replacement score for John Singleton's 1997 historical drama ROSEWOOD; a two-disc set of J. Peter Robinson's music for the long-running TV series CHARMED; a two-disc set of Bear McCreary's music for the CAPRICA TV series; a two-disc set of Geoff Zanelli's Emmy winning score for the miniseries INTO THE WEST; Bill Conti's brassy score for the Armand Assante remake of I, THE JURY; and music from the animated TV series YOUNG JUSTICE.

On June 11, Varese Sarabande plans to release the soundtrack to STUCK IN LOVE, the upcoming romantic comedy-drama about a novelist (Greg Kinnear), his relationship with his ex-wife (Jennifer Connelly) and aspiring-writer children (Lily Collins, Nat Wolff), as well as their own love interests (Logan Lerman, Liana Liberato). The CD will feature songs as well as cues from the original score by Mike Mogis and Nathaniel Walcott.

Intrada plans to release two new CDs next week.

Quartet has announced two new releases of scores previously unavailable on CD, both featuring the cues from the original soundtrack LP releases -- Riz Ortolani's score for Vittorio De Sica's 1967 comedy anthology WOMAN TIMES SEVEN, featuring Shirley MacLaine in seven different roles; and Dominic Frontiere's score for the dark comedy, modern-day update of Faust, HAMMERSMITH IS OUT, starring Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Beau Bridges, George Raft and Peter Ustinov, directed by Ustinov.

Music Box has announced two new releases - Bill Conti's never-before-released score for John Frankenheimer's Cold War drama THE FOURTH WAR, starring Roy Scheider and Jurgen Prochnow; and a CD pairing the LP tracks from two scores by George Garvarentz -- KILLER FORCE (aka The Diamond Mercenaries), and THE CORRUPT ONES, the latter featuring 7 minutes of previously unreleased music (Garvarentz is one of a handful of composers, like Patrick Williams and Fred Karlin, who still has more soundtracks released on LP than on CD).

Intrada will release two new CDs next week.

Intrada has announced two new CDs today, featuring three scores by three Oscar-winning composers.

The first new CD pairs two previously unreleased thriller scores for films directed, respectively, by John Frankenheimer and John Huston, scored by composers who worked with both directors repeatedly. Frankenheimer followed up his classic The Manchurian Candidate with 1964's SEVEN DAYS IN MAY, a conspiracy thriller (the novel was set in the 1970s but the year is unspecified in the film) about an officer who learns of a military coup to overthrow the American government from within. The all-star cast included Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Frederic March, Ava Gardner, Martin Balsam and an Oscar-nominated Edmund O'Brien, and the screenplay was by Rod Serling. Manchurian composer David Amram wrote the original, rejected score (one piece remains in the final film as jukebox source music, but is not included on the CD), and the replacement score was composed by Jerry Goldsmith, his first feature project for the director. Goldsmith gave Seven Days a brief, tense score dominated by percussion -- its closest relative in the composer's canon is the "Time Out" segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie. Paired with Seven Days is Maurice Jarre's complete score for John Huston's 1973 spy thriller THE MACKINTOSH MAN, starring Paul Newman, Dominique Sanda and James Mason. Jarre gave the film a wry, largely monothematic score reminiscent of Anton Karas's beloved Third Man music, with prominent use of the cimbalom. Notes on the two films' production histories were written by me.

His name may not come up much today, but in the 1960s Harold Robbins was a top name in popular fiction, with bestselling potboilers that were often thinly disguised versions of true stories. His novel THE CARPETBAGGERS was a fictionalized portrait of Howard Hughes, and Edward Dmytryk's 1964 film version starred George Peppard as the Hughes character, co-starring Robert Cummings, Carroll Baker, Martha Hyer, Martin Balsam and Alan Ladd as "Nevada Smith" (if that name sounds familiar, it's because Steve McQueen played the role in a prequel of the same name, featuring one of the final scores by Alfred Newman). Elmer Bernstein composed the rousing Carpetbaggers score, and the Intrada CD features the first release of the original score tracks as well as the cues from the composer's LP re-recording of highlights from the score.

La-La Land has announced three new CDs due next week -- a score pairing two scores for John Wayne Westerns composed by Elmer Bernstein, the first release of the original score tracks for the Duke's swan song, Don Siegel's 1976 Western THE SHOOTIST, paired with the re-recorded LP tracks for Henry Hathaway's 1965 Western THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER (the original score tracks from Katie Elder are presumed lost); James Newton Howard's first score for writer-director Lawrence Kasdan, the Oscar-nominated, ensemble L.A. drama GRAND CANYON, in an expanded edition featuring 25 minutes of additional Howard music; and the label's previously announced CD of Roque Banos' score for the just-released remake of EVIL DEAD. 

Monstrous Movie Music has announced four new CDs -- Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter's score for the 1959 thriller VIRGIN SACRIFICE; Shefter's score for the 1953 Lloyd Bridges Western THE TALL TEXAN; Paul Dunlap's music for the 1952 Western HELLGATE, also featuring the 27 minutes of music that survive from his score for the sci-fi adventure LOST CONTINENT (a film which MST3K fans remember as "Rock climbing"); and Nicholas Carras' score for SHE DEMONS, paired with Guenther Kauer's music for THE ASTOUNDING SHE-MONSTER.

Composer Clint Mansell will perform music from his scores such as Moon and Requiem for a Dream at L.A.'s Orpheum theater on Saturday, April 6th.

Perseverance is releasing a two-disc set of the Sherman Brothers' song score to CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG. It will feature the same contents as Kritzerland's out-of-print release.

Intrada plans to release two new score CDs next week.