This was
Duke Ellington's first film score, undertaken at the urging of Anatomy of a Murder's director, Otto Preminger. The full range of the composer's previous work was brought to bear on this 1959 work.
Ellington was a natural choice to convey the rich and varied emotional moods of this drama. Tension and release, danger and safety, movement and stillness, darkness and light; the textural palette that was Ellington's signature was always compellingly cinematic.
In these orchestral settings,
Duke's soloists (
Cat Anderson,
Clark Terry,
Johnny Hodges,
Harry Carney, and others) shine, as their playing reflects true variations on a theme in a classical sense. That's not to say that this set doesn't swing, too -- "Happy Anatomy" is a short but fully cranked gallop. This is an album of rich variety and evocative writing. ~ Rovi Staff