Reissue includes Symphonic Dancees – Leonard Bernstein's reworking of his original score, performed by the New York Philharmonic. CD

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In his later years, Leonard Bernstein became one of the most-respected conductors in the world of classical music – but at the start, he was working in more popular territory, mixing some of his more ambitious musical ideas with the more down-to-earth form of the music – mostly working in New York, where a series of productions really helped define the city on the rise in the postwar years! This package brings together all those important early Bernstein creations – including two different recordings of the "Fancy Free" ballet, both the songs and the ballet from "On The Town", plus the 1960 recording of the musical – plus "Wonderful Town", "West Side Story", and the "On The Waterfront" symphonic suite – as well as lots of other jazz interpretations of some of these themes – work by Frank Sinatra, Bill Evans, Blossom Dearie, Billie Holiday, Stan Kenton, Dave Brubeck, and others. CD

A never-heard soundtrack for a never-seen film – and a record that's every bit as funky as better-known sets from the blacksploitation era! Final Solution were a small time group from Chicago's west side in the 70s, but on this wicked little soundtrack they sparkle just as brightly as Isaac Hayes, Willie Hutch, Curtis Mayfield, or any of our favorite soundtrack soul artists from the time – working in a really righteous approach to soul with lots of heavy rhythms on the bottom and rumbling bass in the mix – so that even when the tunes are mellow, there's still a bold, brash sort of power to the set! The vocals are mostly delivered in harmony style, again with a nice edge – a bit like The Impressions work on Three The Hard Way, but with more of an indie soul feel overall, given the production circumstances. Once again, our hats are off to Numero for unearthing this gem – and as usual, the full tale of the group, the movie, and the music is told at length in the accompanying 16 page booklet! Titles include "Brotherman", "Never Coming Back Again", "I Don't Care", "Girl In My Life", "Gotta Get Through To You", "One Day", "I'm Ready For Love", "Theme From Brotherman", "No Place To Run", and "We Can Work It Out". (Soul, Soundtracks) CD

A very cool record that we might well put right up there with Mel Torme's "California Suite" as a musical tribute to the west coast – or the "Manhattan Tower" of Gordon Jenkins as some sort of tribute to a city! The album's a long piece on the glory of San Francisco – with lots of differently-themed tunes that refer to aspects of the city in mid-century – composed by the team of Libby and Stephen McNeil, set to music by David Rose –a nd featuring vocals by Ray Goman, Shepard Menken, Bob Grabot, Bill Thompson, and others. Titles include "Fog Over Frisco", "Meet The Press", "When You Call It Frisco Smile", "Around The Town Sequence", andee "Mission Dolores". Side two features "Four Moods In Memory" – a suite of themes played by Rose, with narration by Don Sherwood. LP, Vinyl record album

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 surprisingly poignant score – especially when you consider that it was written for a film that was known for its graphic violence! Jerry Fielding's at his height here – drawing on his earlier work in jazz, yet weaving together colors and tones that work with really bold imagistic properties – almost visual in themselves, but in ways that are so different from the images on the screen – and which, on record, make the whole thing feel like it's almost an alternative movie in itself! The orchestrations are wonderful – hardly the usual western style, but not really crime, cop, or other 60s modes either. Titles include "Drinking Song", "Dirge & Finale", "Adventures On The High Road", "Main Title", and "Adelita". LP, Vinyl record album

A landmark record – not only in the history of the western, but in that of Ennio Morricone! The soundtrack, written for this hit Clint Eastwood spaghetti western, is everything you'd want in a 60s western – driving orchestral passages, twanging guitar parts, and spooky little bits that isolate the mood of a scene nicely. The work's an instant classic, and is still one of Morricone's strongest western soundtracks – even if it is one of the most familiar. Titles include "Without Pity", "Almost Dead", "Square Dance", "The Chase", and the extended "Fistful Of Dollars" suite, which takes up all of side two. LP, Vinyl record album

A cool album – featuring one side of the score to A Fistful Of Dollars and one side of the soundtrack of For A Few Dollars More! The songs are short, but tense – and mix plodding solo instrumentation with some sparer dramatic moments, creating a sublime tension that's unsurpassed in the realm of western scoring! Titles include "A Fistful Of Dollars", "Almost Dead", "The Chase", "The Result", "Without Pity", "Sixty Seconds To What?", "The Watcher Watched", "Vice Of Killing", "The Showdown", "Goodbye Colonel" and "For A Few Dollars More". LP, Vinyl record album

An obscure Morricone soundtrack, but a great one too – done with a slinky, seductive feel that's totally great – and often a bit different than his early 70s classics! Many of the numbers here have a warm glow – a sound that's never too polished, but more in the erotic side of the Morricone spectrum than the spooky one. And a few cuts feature some nice instrumental touches that really stand out – like jazzy flute, blue-tinged trumpet, and even some of those great "boing" noises that used to show up in Ennio's western scores from time to time! Titles include "Una Bossa A Cena", "Per L'Amore Si Fara", "Mezza Luce", "E Mejo De Mori Che Resta Qui", "Per Annabella", and "Una Famiglia Povera". CD

A groundbreaking album, put together by Zorn and a group of downtown New York hipsters, as a fitting hommage to the genius of Ennio Morricone! The track list sticks to mostly the bigger known numbers, and the album's got a darkness that we'd actually say was a bit out of place, considering the choice of tracks – but the groups formed by Zorn do a pretty good job of breathing new life into some of the tracks, and the album was a key moment in the recognition of Morricone as one of the century's greatest composers. Players include Robert Quine, Tim Berne, Arto Lindsay, Jim Staley, Bill Frisell, Christian Marclay, Anton Fier, and even Big John Patton. Titles include "Erotico", "Once Upon A Time In The West", "Giu La Testa", "Battle Of Algiers", and "The Big Gundown". (Jazz, Soundtracks) CD

Breakin 2 is maybe an even better soundtrack than the first entry in the series – and not just because it gave the world the term "electric boogaloo"! The team of Ollie & Jerry seem almost fully in charge here – and in addition to creating some great tracks of their own, they also produce some other beat box gems that are equally great – nestled here alongside some well-chosen street soul groovers too! Titles include "Electric Boogaloo" and "When I C U" by Ollie & Jerry – plus "Stylin Profilin" and "Radiotron" by Firefox, "Din Daa Daa" by George Kranz, "Gotta Have The Money" by Steve Donn, "Believe In The Beat" by Carol Lynn Townes, "I Don't Want To Come Down" by Mark Scott, "See It Out" by Midway, and "Oye Mamacita" by Rags & Riches. (Hip Hop, Soundtracks) CD

A very cool Japanese collection of spaghetti western vocal and instrumental numbers – with a nice mix of soundtrack themes and songs with lyrics! Includes work from Nico Fidenco, Gianni Ferrio, Berto Fia, Bobby Solo, Peter Tevis, Don Powell, Stelvio Cipriani, and Piero Piccioni! LP, Vinyl record album