In Cold Blood (1967)

Composer(s):
Quincy Jones

Released in:
1967

Reviews

Quincy Jones Stunning Oscar-Nominated Score Was a Breakthrough . . .
by filmfactsman (July 6, 2005)
The true breakthrough for black composers in Hollywood came with Quincy Jones's riveting work on 1967's "In Cold Blood". That year, Jones did the music for both "In the Heat of the Night" and "In Cold Blood". Although his theme for "In the Heat of the Night", sung by the late Ray Charles, gained more popularity with the mass audience, critics devoted more attention to his work on "In Cold Blood", in which he pushed farthest the infusing of a jazz score with a deeply disquieting musical idiom.

Jones, a new Hollywood composer in the 1960s, demonstrated great flexibility and openness to experimentation, but he also displayed a capacity to let go of any posture of preciousness toward his own artistic creations when the situation demanded. For example, when Richard Brooks, the director of the film, disliked a section of Jones's score, Brooks instructed the sound mixer, Jack Solomon, to simply leave it out. Solomon, however, played Jones's composition backwards on the tape and decided to use the music in this way to accompany a scene where two drifters approach the farmhouse of their victims. Brooks was delighted with the results, as was Jones.

Perhaps the greatest compliment paid to Quincy Jones for his revolutionary score for "In Cold Blood" was the fact that he was only one of three persons listed (along with the film's director Richard Brooks and the book's author Truman Capote) on the original one-sheet movie poster used to advertise the film. Now that's quite an honor! At the present, no CD release. Come on, Varese! If you can release and re-release "Casino Royale" (another Colegems title), then what are we waiting for?

Reviews on other sites:

none available

Submit a link