October 9, 2013

  • Conti's "I, The Jury" Provides a Jazzy Noir

    Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer was a detective whose life expanded upon the sort of loner mysterious Sam Spade of Dashiell Hammett.  Hammett’s Spade was born out of the 1920s/1930s and shifted detective fiction from the sort of Sherlock Holmes approach.  Spade was often in the midst of whatever trouble came his way.  It is perhaps no coincidence that while Hammett’s character was receiving film attention in iconic performances by Humphrey Bogart, that Spillane’s introduction of this new detective in I, The Jury would soon follow.  The classic 1953 film noir featured Biff Elliot—debuting as a lead in a feature film—in a 3-D adaptation of the story.  After the success of Body Heat (1980), the time felt ripe for an update to Spillane’s novel and Larry Cohen created a new adaptation with plans to direct the film.  The latter would fall instead to Richard Heffron (Futureworld, North and South).  Though perhaps at the same level of its predecessor the film does feature Armand Assante’s interesting turn as Hammer, with Barbara Carrera, Alan King, and Paul Sorvino rounding off the cast.  Bill Conti was on hand to provide the score.

    The music for I, The Jury does have its more noir-ish moments, but Conti’s approach jazzes up the musical support with a style more in keeping with detective dramas of the early 1970s.  The interesting rhythmic syncopations, with some of their roots in jazz funk (“Rummy Run”), are often coupled with dissonant string ideas for added tension.  The propulsive “Main Title” is reminiscent of Schifrin with a touch of Shire (“Daisy Cuttings”).  On great display here is pianist Mike Lang whose rapid passage work feels like a mad Stravinsky-like improvisation in the action sequences.  The more evocative piano style is drawn from a Chopin nocturne which provides some of the musical material with interesting variations as the score proceeds.  In “Chopin Nocturne/Stairway to Surrogate” one can hear how this transformation takes place.  “Rummy Run” is one of the big jazz tracks with amazing sax and trumpet solos (revisited in “Michael’s Taxi Ride”.  “Mike to Set” is more an 80’s-style track with its added synth-like effects.  A sort of Grusin-like jazz piano style appears in sections as well, most excellently in “Concrete Chase Conclusion” with big brass interjections.  The music certainly ramps up the energy level and provides a good amount of excitement along the way blending the sort of 1970s crime genre with a few modern touches.  One might even find some parallels to Gil Evans concept albums.   Tracks like “Pat’s Patsy” and “Pleading Bleeding Velma” allow for more sinister and intense dissonant orchestral writing provide dramatic contrast.

    To fill out the disc presentation to a full hour, La-La Land has added a number of bonus tracks.  There are two brief alternate cues (“Widow’s Wake” and “Mike’s Taxi Ride”) an excerpt of harp music and four “unknown” cues.  The accompanying booklet says very little about any of these, or really much more about the score itself tending to focus on Mike Lang’s accomplishments and lauding Conti’s career.  The final track shows off Lang’s performance of the Chopin nocturne  which is mentioned in the notes in vague terms and never identified as to which opus is being used.

    I, The Jury perhaps remains a guilty pleasure for fans of detective noir.  Conti’s score is certainly an excellent jazzy ride with an engaging main thematic idea and shored up by a fabulous group of musicians.  Fans of the crime genre scores of the 1970s (Bernstein, Schifrin) will find much to enjoy here.  This is a limited edition release of 2000 units available through the label's website and on-line retailers.