Various artists
French New Wave: Original Remastered Jazz on Film Recordings 1957-62
Jazz on Film Records (5-CDs) ****
The third film music box set in as many years, Jazz Noir and Beat Square and Cool were issued on the Moochin’ About imprint (the latter set reviewed here http://www.marlbank.net/news/193-your-next-box-set) the format remains the same: with 5-CDs and a handsome booklet featuring well designed period photographs and fine explanatory notes written by the set’s producer, Selwyn Harris. The pick of the music without a doubt in my mind is Miles Davis’ score for Louis Malle’s Lift to the Scaffold. Yet there’s also something completely irresistible about music for a less well remembered film in Duke Jordan’s score performed by Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers for Roger Vadim’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Martial Solal’s score for À Bout de Souffle (Breathless) was at the heart of the French New Wave and as Harris notes: “It’s the sound of Godard turning conventions upside down.” A pivotal period in jazz within cinema history, successfully evoked. Stephen Graham
Released on 30 September