Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: jazz & hard-boiled

Etienne Borgers (etienne@singnet.com.sg)
Wed, 19 Nov 1997 22:41:27 +0800 (SGT) Bill Hagen, developped some interesting thoughts about Jazz and HB films:

>Can I rename a strand from the Mike Hammer thread? How about "Jazz &
>hard-boiled"?
SNIPPED

Be welcome with your proposal! And I agree with you to keep the TV series
out of this discussion about music in HB films.

>Two thoughts: jazz, as separated somewhat from the blues, has historically
>been an urban music; furthermore it has been associated with bars,
>speakeasys, clubs, red light districts (Storyville) where crime and
>criminals thrive. Hence the gangster films of the 30s, later to become
>gangbusters' films, often had scenes in a club or speakeasy which had a
>show, often featuring a jazz band.
SNIPPED

Besides the moods created by the Jazz music itself, and its historical roots
fed by gangsterism mainly due to the prohibition years (but finally, is this
not true for all of the American society of the early XXth century as
well?), another factor for its selection in some films is that Jazz was
always a music of contestation, like the HB/Noir films were themselves a
kind of provocation against the mainstream of society and its hypocrisy,and
against corruption of officials.
If you add to it the racist background of these years, it was probably
something felt as a provovation as well for a White musician to play with
Black jazz players...
So, besides the evident expressionism of Jazz music that serves well HB
movies, there was IMO also a kind of symbiosis of two popular arts forms,
both being "untuned" to the then mainstream views of the American society,
at least until the early sixties. This was certainly felt by most of the
film directors using Jazz.

>I remember at least two noir titles from the 50s where the jazz score was
>inseparable from the action: "Odds Against Tomorrow" (John Lewis score) and
>"The Man With the Golden Arm" (Elmer Bernstein score). Mancini brought
>the big band back into noir-PI (if it had ever left), espec. with his theme
>for tv's "Peter Gunn," but at that point I think we're getting a bit
>soft-boiled and the music just driving big beat stuff, adaptable to any
>adventure.

Besides MJQ and its first class music in 'Odds Against Tomorrow',
do not forget the Duke Ellington Band in 'Anatomy of a Murder' (Otto
Preminger), or Miles Davis in 'Ascenseur pour l'echafaud' (Louis Malle)
both with memorable pure Jazz music as sound track.
And there are many other examples of very good HB or Noir films using
superbly all the moods and ambiguity that can be created by Jazz music.
Jazz was also used in non-HB movies in the fifties and sixties, mainly. But
I agree with the other followers of this thread to say that it is probably
in HB/Noir films that Jazz was the best integrated and giving a real echo to
the action depicted.

I established in my Web site, some months ago, a list and comments with
music references for a selection of about 20 HB/Noir films using music to
reinforce their actions; most of them use Jazz. If interested, you may
check out my Web-site:
HARD-BOILED MYSTERIES
Chapter for HB films- section : film music- at:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384/

I have to complete the list, but I suffer from the missing factor: time!

>Hope I haven't squashed the topic for everyone. (One note leads to
>another.) Others' thoughts on jazz, etc. in hard-boiled fiction or film?
>
The subject is vast and worthwhile, as Jazz is really a good companion for HB.
Even if in the today cinema it is now replaced by rock music and some forms
of R&B.

E.Borgers

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