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In the late 60s two composers who had arranged for Count Basie scored westerns: Quincy Jones and Neil Hefti.
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"I'd love to see Joe Kraemer tackle a western...hell any movie!"
I'll second that, for sure. 15 years ago Kraemer would have had a schedule like Desplat.
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Not a composer, but one of the oddest things I've ever seen on celluloid was the late, great jazz drummer Elvin Jones pounding his drum set in that rock 'n' roll western, Zachariah. The sight of that hip, urban badass Jones, who powered Coltrane's great quartert like no one else ever could, garbed in cowboy gear and playing in a western saloon is a cinematic stretch I'll never forget. Also, to this day, I have never seen a musician live who so totally mesmerized me as did Elvin Jones, when I saw him leading his group in Chicago at The Jazz Showcase on Rush Street in 1979.
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I'd love to see Joe Kraemer tackle a western...hell any movie!
MV
As it turns out, Joe Kraemer scored a series of made-for-cable westerns for Larry Levinson Productions and director David S. Cass Sr., most of which appeared on the Hallmark Channel:
Hard Ground (2003)
The Trail to Hope Rose (2004)
Desolation Canyon (2006)
Avenging Angel (2007)
Prairie Fever (2008)
Lone Rider (2008)
I recently saw Desolation Canyon. Kraemer's score is serviceable, but hardly a classic of the genre. I suspect he was working with less than a full orchestra on these projects.
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Okay, here's an odd one, but I have to explain it.
Frank Zappa. First of all, many of you know Zappa was self-taught and could compose complex scores for large orchestras.
There is a Spanish musician by the name of Caballero Reynaldo, who records lots of Zappa covers. He likes to recast all of them in a "western" or American blues, folk, or country style.
Anyway, he's done two versions of Lumpy Gravy, one featuring solo voice and one featuring guitar. The guitar one sounds so much like a western I wonder if Zappa composed it as a theme for a western, back before his rock n roll career when he was trying to break through as a composer, writing in a variety of styles.
Another piece, Eat That Question, sounds like a spaghetti western tune.
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