Five Sax is a group of international saxophone players who formed back in 2011.  The present disc features their own arrangements of a variety of film music.  Obviously not necessarily for purists, the album does feature some great virtuosic performances covering a blend of familiar and less familiar fare.

The album opens with an interesting idea: a series of themes from classic pirate films from Korngold to Badelt/Zimmer.  The arrangement itself is overall quite good.  The music from Hook and the Korngold (with beautifully-shaped thematic playing here!) seems to fit best for the sound of the group, the punch of the more recent Pirates of the Caribbean adds some nice contrast rhythmically.  Personally, it might have been better placed at the end of the album to help orient the audience better to the overall sound of this music and with the somewhat exciting finale working well with added percussion.

That said, the inclusion of music by Leroy Shields (1893-1962) will be the greatest find here.  Shields provided music for the Laurel and Hardy films and the ensemble has put together a little “suite” of sorts featuring five incidental pieces from these films (including the signature “Cuckoo” and delightful “Little Dancing Girl”).  The performances here are simply wonderful capturing the spirit of this music and the period quite wonderfully.  The theme from Rota’s score for 81/2 follows (this would have been a great opening track) and is another great highlight of this carnival like atmosphere.

Next up are three more lyrical choices.  “Gabriel’s Oboe” from The Mission may seem like a bold choice but demonstrates the expressive qualities of the soprano sax.  “Playing Love” (The Legend of 1900) is perhaps one of Morricone’s most masterful underscoring moments and this is an equally touching arrangement which also features pianist Jacek Obstarczyk.  “Married Life” from Up then seems like a very natural choice to flow out of these two pieces and is simply perfect.

The CD then takes a bit of a left turn musically with a suite from Psycho!  The opening is less harsh, but the knife sequence is perhaps not quite as successful.  What is interesting is that one can hear some of the jazz-like rhythmic ideas of Herrmann’s score more clearly in this setting.  We get to recover a bit with a cover of “Hedwig’s Theme” (with some added percussion aiding the colors) and then an interesting suite of music from Shore’s The Lord of the Rings scores.  The latter is interesting but percussion ideas, while trying to get at the flavor of the music, do not work always as well.  Jazzier and rock influences provide musical contrast for Bono’s theme from Goldeneye, which works well.  Finally, we are in firm jazz territory with selections from Henry Mancini’s The Pink Panther whose original sax solo is among the classic film themes for the instrument.  Here the added percussion and performance is simply spot on!  Three additional musical sequences follow from the 1964 film (“The Village Inn”, “Royal Blue”, and “It Had Better Be Tonight”) and are all excellently chosen for this ensemble.

Five Sax have put together a really fun album of film music that explores the wide range of their ensemble of saxes.  The choices are performed with a great sense of the music’s original sound often with a real attention to detail and energy that draw you in rather quickly.  Some sequencing aside, the album plays quite well with listeners sure to find something that stands out to them along the way.  At the Movies is thus a fairly successful compilation of film music arrangements with fabulous performances on this wonderful Orlando Records release.

Film music fans may recall Terence Blanchard’s 1999 album, Jazz in Film for its interesting program of film themes treated to semi-improvisational noir-like musical explorations of music that had already a jazz-template from which to work.  This new release from Pirouet Records, Germany, takes its title from a Morricone score, Cinema Paradiso, and features tenor saxophonist Jason Seizer in an equally intriguing program whose jazz roots may be a little sketchier.  Seizer’s combo here features pianist Pablo Held with bassist Matthias Pichler and Fabian Arends on drums.  The arrangements are not credited here, but they do take a page from  the noir-like styles of Blanchard’s album with a Stan Getz-like style that suggests smoky backrooms.

This impression is set as the album begins with “Carlotta’s Portrait” from Herrmann’s Vertigo score.  Though a seeming unlikely candidate for improvisation, this is a rather convincing atmospheric take on the music.  The title track, from Morricone’s 1988 score, has a more relaxed approach that unfolds over almost 8 minutes of dreamy playing.  One of the marks of this album, and also why it is so interesting, is that Seizer has chosen some equally unique music alongside some of the more familiar pieces.  Among the former of these is Roque Banos’ score for The Machinist (2004) in the dark exploration of “Steve’s Care.”  The primary theme from On the Waterfront (1954) picks up the pace just slightly as the melody here allows for interesting interpretations and accents.

Stanley Myers’ beautiful “Cavatina” from The Deer Hunter undergoes a bit more deconstruction and re-emphasis of the familiar melody with interesting harmonic shifts and a chance for a central improvisational area for the combo.  Another unusual choice, but one perfectly suited for this setting is “Jungle Beat.”  This less familiar musical exploration from The Jungle Book might seem an unlikely first choice from George Bruns’ score, but it works very well here and allows for a slightly faster-paced interlude from the dreamier opening free jazz improvisational ideas.  The same approach also makes “Children’s Games” from Desplat’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button a great jazz number again allowing perhaps greater room for flexibility in a lesser known film score.

The last two selections are worlds apart in their respective film’s genres, but much closer than one might think.  A double take was in order when reading the track listing to see Jerry Goldsmith’s “Alien Main Theme” as the penultimate track.  How would or could one translate this intriguing slowly unfolding melody to both make it recognizable but also allow room for Seizer’s exploration of the music.  Well, the result here is quite compelling as the harmonic ideas of Goldsmith’s theme are easily stripped down as elongated jazz harmonies.  His wavering melody works very well to launch into slight improvisational ideas and somehow the mysterious character of the music itself is not lost.  The choice of the “Love Theme” from Alex Noth’s Spartacus score then becomes all the better as parallels can be closely made in the way the same expanded harmonic palette created this rich melody.

Cinema Paradiso is not an album for film score purists.  But, Jason Seizer’s sensitive and languid approach to this music shows his own appreciation for their sources.  The result is some very fascinating musical interpretations perfect for unwinding after a late night at the movies.