© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all
rights reserved.
“If modern jazz becomes
indelibly linked with manslaughter, murder, mayhem, wisecracking private eyes
and droll policemen, the brunt of the responsibility must be borne by composer
Henry Mancini. Because of him the point is rapidly being reached where no
self-respecting killer would consider pulling the trigger without a suitable
jazz background.
Seriously, Henry Mancini has
become a pacesetter. Immediately after the first episode of the TV series
"Peter Gunn," Mancini's modern jazz background score became a topic
of general conversation. The Music from
Peter Gunn, his first RCA Victor album (LPM/LSP-1956), rocketed into the
nation's number one best-selling spot with the muzzle velocity of a police
positive. Various recordings of the main theme music became top single records.
With all this excitement, it
was inevitable that others should follow Mancini's lead. TV detectives now
swash, buckle and make love to the strains of modern jazz.”
- Bill Olofson, liner notes to More
Music From Peter Gunn [RCA LPM-2040]
Had it not been
for a chance meeting with producer-director Blake Edwards, I daresay that Henry
Mancini may not have had the opportunity to fulfill his lifelong dream of
writing music for the movies.
There was no
television when the dream first took shape in Henry’s mind after his father
took him to see Cecil B. DeMille’s movie version of The Crusades.
The year was 1935.
Henry was eleven-years old.
In the 23-years
between that fateful day at the Lowe’s Penn Theater in Pittsburg , PA North
Hollywood , CA
As the late,
writer Ray Bradbury once put it: “You make yourself as you go.”
After serving as a
rifleman in World War II, Mancini
married and, at his wife Ginny’s suggestion, he relocated to southern California
Henry did every job
imaginable at Universal’s music room from copying scores to writing incidental
music to even writing scores for
forgettable-at-the-time-later-to-become-cult-classic-“B”-films like The Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Henry, too, might
have been forgotten if he hadn’t been for the advent of television as a popular
form of entertainment in the 1950s.
And, a rendezvous
with obscurity might have loomed even larger for Henry had he not run into Blake
Edwards, an old acquaintance, that fateful day in 1958 on the Universal back
lot.
What’s the old
adage: “I’d rather be lucky than good[?]”
Henry Mancini was
a couple of years younger than Blake at the time of there chance meeting [36
and 38, respectively].
The studio system
that maintained staff orchestras and staff composer-arrangers was coming to an
end and Mancini has just lost his job. He had a wife and three children to
support.
As they were
parting company, Blake asked Henry if he would be interested in doing a TV show
with him.
“Sure,” said
Mancini, “what’s the name of it?”
Edwards said “It’s
called Peter Gunn.”
Mancini asked:
“What is it, a Western?”
Edwards, replied:
“You’ll see.”
The rest is
history.
Starring Craig
Stevens as the stylish private-eye, Peter Gunn was to become one of the
most successful series in that genre.
Thanks to
Mancini’s genius, it would also lead to major changes in how music was written
for television and the movies.
For Peter Gunn, Henry Mancini wrote the
first full score in television history.
Both Blake Edwards
and Henry Mancini went on to have illustrious television and movie careers that
resulted in fame and fortune, distinction and awards, and the comforts of a
satisfying and stylish life.
But for me, the epitome Henry Mancini’s composing and
arranging always began and ended with his exciting and energetic work on the
music for Peter Gunn.
The Jazz pulse
with which he infused the music for that TV series has influenced and informed
my Jazz consciousness for over fifty years.
One of my great
treats in life is to return to this music and savor its timeless brilliance.
Much of the music
that Mancini wrote for Peter Gunn features
small group Jazz, but Blue Steel, which is from the second album – More
Music for Peter Gunn – is composed for a full big band, one that
certainly roars on this track.
Led by a trumpet
section of Conrad Gozzo [lead], Pete Candoli [soloist], Frank Beach
and Graham Young – can you imagine?! – and an orchestra that also includes five
trombones, four French Horns, four woodwinds and four rhythm, Blue Steel is a veritable explosion in
sound.
Hank’s music
always seems to bubble with enthusiasm and humor; its bright, bouncy and bops
along.
Blue Steel is only 3:39 minutes in length and yet it
is brimming over with compositional devices – vamps, interludes and riffs that
launch the soloists; half-step modulations and dynamics that are constantly
building in the background until Hank rushes the band effervescently to the
foreground; glissandos that probe and punctuate the arrangement; a throbbing
walking bass that starts and stops to heighten suspense; vibes-guitar-piano
playing mice-running-along-the-piano-keys figures to create a furtive sonority;
flute “choirs” interspersed with vibes and then with a piano solo; a trumpet
solo that soars over bass trombone pedal tones and ascending, and then,
descending French Horns [see if you can catch Pete Candoli’s reference to Your Getting to Be a Habit With Me in
his solo].
And just when you
think the band is going to explode, Hank brings in a fanfare played by the
orchestra in unison with Conrad Gozzo screaming out three, high note blasts to
close the piece with a rush of orchestral adrenalin.
This is the music
of a master orchestrator at work. Few arrangers have ever called upon a greater
palette of colors in their arrangements. Mancini music always seem to have a
mysterious gift of melody to it which provides him with a strong, inner core to
build his scores upon.
