A great lost crime jazz soundtrack – penned by Elmer Bernstein in the style of some of his best work from the 50s! There's a real Man With The Golden Arm feel here – as the orchestra rises and falls in a mode matching the Staccato title – and solos break out with a fluid and brazen sort of feel – plenty of jazz to show the west coast origin of the recording! Players include Don Fagerquist and Pete Candoli on trumpets, Dick Nash on trombone, Ted Nash and Dave Pell on saxes, John Williams on piano, and Barney Kessell on guitar. The show itself is pretty darn cool – and starred a young John Cassavetes as detective Johnny Staccato – a role that supposedly gave Cassavetes enough money to shoot the film Shadows in his free time! Great all the way through – with tracks that include "Staccato's Theme", "Thinking Of Baby", "Poi & Juice", "Deadly Game", "Night Mood", "Jazz At Waldo's", "Like Having Fun", and "MacDougal Street Special". LP, Vinyl record album

A treasure trove of lost music from the Man From UNCLE TV show – tracks composed by Jerry Goldsmith, with a feel that's quite different than the Hugo Montenegro recordings that comprised the more famous RCA soundtrack album! Jerry still keeps the tense "spy" mood of the show, but he also brings in some styles that are a lot more brooding, moody, and contemplative – really heightening the suspense of the music with some sharp-edged string passages alongside jazzier and more forthcoming riffing from the horns. The beautifully-done 2CD set features a total of 32 tracks in all, along with a great booklet of photos and notes on the music! Titles include "The Iowa Scuba Affair", "Alexander The Greater Affair", "The Deadly Goddess Affair", "Alternate Fourth Season Main Title", "The Pop Art Affair", "Third Season Main Title", and "One Of Our Spies Is Missing". CD

A much-needed look at an overlooked side of the genius of Quincy Jones – not his jazz work, not his productions for famous soul artists, but instead his huge legacy of soundtrack material – a part of Q's career that really took off in the 60s! By the time he started working in films, Jones had already had a decade under his belt as one of the hippest arrangers, leaders, and composers in jazz – and the film business really respected those talents, and allowed Quincy to bring some really fresh styles into play – modes that really opened up the vibe of American cinema, and also paved the way for the funky styles of the 70s! As that decade approached, Jones left behind the cinema to take on some more higher-profile records of his own – but all the charms of those great albums can be found here at their roots – in this stunning collection of soundtrack material, some of which has never been on CD. The package is way more than just a sampler – and includes an album's worth of material from the films The Pawnbroker, Slender Thread, Mirage, The Deadly Affair, In The Heat Of The Night, In Cold Blood, Walk Don't Run, The Italian Job, Lost Man, and John & Mary – plus two versions of the love theme from The Getaway, and a bonus CD with 18 tracks – titled Q's highlights, and featuring tracks from his Mercury records – plus more by Billy Preston, Arthur Prysock, Bill Cosby, Shirley Horn, Letta Mbulu, Toots Thielemans, and others. Even features the "Sanford & Son" and "Ironside" themes! CD

A much-needed look at an overlooked side of the genius of Quincy Jones – not his jazz work, not his productions for famous soul artists, but instead his huge legacy of soundtrack material – a part of Q's career that really took off in the 60s! By the time he started working in films, Jones had already had a decade under his belt as one of the hippest arrangers, leaders, and composers in jazz – and the film business really respected those talents, and allowed Quincy to bring some really fresh styles into play – modes that really opened up the vibe of American cinema, and also paved the way for the funky styles of the 70s! As that decade approached, Jones left behind the cinema to take on some more higher-profile records of his own – but all the charms of those great albums can be found here at their roots – in this stunning collection of soundtrack material, some of which has never been on CD. The package is way more than just a sampler – and includes an album's worth of material from the films The Pawnbroker, Slender Thread, Mirage, The Deadly Affair, In The Heat Of The Night, In Cold Blood, Walk Don't Run, The Italian Job, Lost Man, and John & Mary – plus two versions of the love theme from The Getaway, and a bonus CD with 18 tracks – titled Q's highlights, and featuring tracks from his Mercury records – plus more by Billy Preston, Arthur Prysock, Bill Cosby, Shirley Horn, Letta Mbulu, Toots Thielemans, and others. Even features the "Sanford & Son" and "Ironside" themes! CD

An overlooked, but very groovy soundtrack by Quincy Jones! The record has a mix of easy jazz and a few harder-edged themes – dramatic throughout, but with washes of crime jazz, bossa, and some floating easy scoring. Players aren't listed, but you can bet they're the usual high-level crop of jazzmen that Quincy would get for his mid 60s Mercury sides. Titles include "Dead Duck", "Purple Prose", "Boobie Baby", "Shoot To Kill", "A Shot In The Park", and "Turtles Last Lap". LP, Vinyl record album

Apes, fight like apes! This great CD pairs the soundtracks for the last two Planet Of The Apes films – Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes and Battle For The Planet Of The Apes both of which were much more low-budget and a bit more unbridled than the original movies. Conquest features 14 tracks written by funky jazzer Tom Scott – done in a mix of orchestral suspense and military themes, often handled with some nice touches of 70s electric instrumentation that's similar to that used by Scott in his TV show work. Battle features 17 tracks written by Leonard Rosenmann, who'd scored the earlier Beneath The Planet Of The Apes film, and who here returns to the moody feel of that score. A great package, with a wonderful booklet and nice images – limited to 3000 copies, with titles that include "Ape Servitude", "1991 Restaurant", "Teacher Teacher", "Caesar Departs", "Ricky's Theme", "Electrocution", "The King Is Dead", and "Subjugation Soul". CD

A very cool soundtrack with a very unusual history – part of a brief sub-genre of films that were created during a time when the Italian and Spanish scene were doing their version of British horror and mystery! As such, the album does a great job of mixing groovy styles that you'd know from Italian films with some of the darker modes of gothic horror – these deeper tones and starker moments that are then offset by more upbeat and jazzy passages in a really great way! The strings can move between offbeat/atonal and more traditional – and there's also some very nice use of echoey percussion too. Titles include "Surreal", "Trance", "John Dalton Street", "The Living Dead", "Mysterious Country", "The Torment Of The Dead", and "Aggression". CD

Seminal spy sounds from the 60s – a treasure trove of spy-themed tunes, and one that features loads of material you might not hear otherwise! The set doesn't feature the big hits from the James Bond films, and instead includes all the great little records that sprung up in the wake of those movies – cool jazz, vocal, and instrumental records that sometimes feature weird reworkings of more famous soundtrack numbers, sometimes lesser-known cuts from b-grade films, and sometimes fresh new spy numbers on their own! The style ranges from groovy guitar numbers to blaring jazzy tracks to slinky steppers that find a very cool balance between suspense and swing. Titles include "Dr Goldfoot & The Bikini Machine" by The Supremes, "The Last Of The Secret Agents" by Nancy Sinatra, "Theme From Danger Man" by Red Price, "A Man Alone" by John Barry, "Deadlier Than The Male" by The Walker Brothers, "Burke's Law" by Wynton Kelly, "We Should've" by Cleo Laine, "Our Man Flint" by Billy Strange, "Theme From Where The Spies Are" by Jimmy Smith, "The Liquidator" by Shirley Bassey, "I Spy" by Roland Shaw, "Come Spy With Me" by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, and "High Wire" by Brian Fahey. (Funky Compilations, Soundtracks) CD