Twilight Zone Jazz

[Teasing the Korean]

I will be devoting an upcoming radio show to Twilight Zone jazz. Details here:

[Pete C]

[Pete C]

I knew that Creed Taylor was responsible for some shlock, but I didn't know about Shock.

[Teasing the Korean]

I knew that Creed Taylor was responsible for some shlock, but I didn't know about Shock.

It's a Kenyon Hopkins album. Creed's name is on it for contractual reasons.

[Pete C]

Apparently Shock was so popular it had to procreate.

[Teasing the Korean]

A few more examples:

Franz Waxman - Crime in the Streets

Jerry Goldsmith - City of Fear

[sgcim]

There was a great 1960s British horror film anthology that featured a short horror story about a jazz trumpet player who transcribed some sacred African melodies, and performed them in a club.The resultant piece is a bongo-filled, dissonant, wild cacophony that builds up to the leader of the tribe laying the hapless trumpet player to waste. I forget the name of the movie- maybe something like "Tales of Terror"(?).

Kenton might have done some stuff like that.

Lalo Schifrin's first Hollywood score (some 1966 crime movie with Ann- Margaret), ends with a wild piece like this.

David Raksin wrote some dissonant stuff for "Force of Evil" that might qualify.

i think there was some of this type of stuff in "Crime and Punishment, USA" (1962).

[Teasing the Korean]

I will have to check these out.

Which Lalo Schifrin score do you mean, Once a Thief?

[sgcim]

Yeah, there's a scene in the last 20 minutes of Once a Thief that has a great piece that could've been written today.

It also had a wild opening scene of a jazz drummer playing a drum solo in a jazz club, that went on for more than five minutes.

[Teasing the Korean]

Thanks. I have the CD that includes both the LP and film versions of "Once a Thief." I'll have to listen for that music late in the film.

[disaac]

I think that Hopkins' score for 'The Hustler' would also qualify here. It's what I was hearing in my mind's ear when I read your well-articulated description of the 'TZ sound'.

[Teasing the Korean]

I think that Hopkins' score for 'The Hustler' would also qualify here. It's what I was hearing in my mind's ear when I read your well-articulated description of the 'TZ sound'.

I think you're right. I have only a fairly beat copy of that LP. I need to spin it soon.

[crisp]

There was a great 1960s British horror film anthology that featured a short horror story about a jazz trumpet player who transcribed some sacred African melodies, and performed them in a club.The resultant piece is a bongo-filled, dissonant, wild cacophony that builds up to the leader of the tribe laying the hapless trumpet player to waste. I forget the name of the movie- maybe something like "Tales of Terror"(?).

I think you are thinking of Dr. Terror's House of Horrors. Amusingly for British viewers the trumpeter was played by Roy Castle, a light entertainer (and trumpeter) who presented a long-running children's series called Record Breakers. Tubby Hayes also makes an appearance.

[alankin]

Perhaps Ran Blake's "Film Noir" LP would fit.

[sgcim]

There was a great 1960s British horror film anthology that featured a short horror story about a jazz trumpet player who transcribed some sacred African melodies, and performed them in a club.The resultant piece is a bongo-filled, dissonant, wild cacophony that builds up to the leader of the tribe laying the hapless trumpet player to waste. I forget the name of the movie- maybe something like "Tales of Terror"(?).

I think you are thinking of Dr. Terror's House of Horrors. Amusingly for British viewers the trumpeter was played by Roy Castle, a light entertainer (and trumpeter) who presented a long-running children's series called Record Breakers. Tubby Hayes also makes an appearance.

That's the one. RC was a pisser!

I saw another 60s British horror flick the other day called "Corruption", with Peter Cushing wildly overacting the old 'mad surgeon trying to restore his wife's beautiful face by using the skin of other beautiful women' role (in other words, a rip-off of "Eyes Without a Face").

There's some wonderfully demented 'Twilight Zone Jazz' in the scene when Cushing and his wife are chasing the beatnik chick across the beach for what seems like an hour.

[Teasing the Korean]

Just picked up a real gem: Gunther Schuller's Seven Studies on the Themes of Paul Klee. Mercury Living Presence, with Dorati conducting.

It also contains Gershwin's An American in Paris, one of the earliest examples of what I call Happy Housewife music.

[Shawn]

There was a great 1960s British horror film anthology that featured a short horror story about a jazz trumpet player who transcribed some sacred African melodies, and performed them in a club.The resultant piece is a bongo-filled, dissonant, wild cacophony that builds up to the leader of the tribe laying the hapless trumpet player to waste. I forget the name of the movie- maybe something like "Tales of Terror"(?).

I think you are thinking of Dr. Terror's House of Horrors. Amusingly for British viewers the trumpeter was played by Roy Castle, a light entertainer (and trumpeter) who presented a long-running children's series called Record Breakers. Tubby Hayes also makes an appearance.

That's the one. RC was a pisser!

I saw another 60s British horror flick the other day called "Corruption", with Peter Cushing wildly overacting the old 'mad surgeon trying to restore his wife's beautiful face by using the skin of other beautiful women' role (in other words, a rip-off of "Eyes Without a Face").

There's some wonderfully demented 'Twilight Zone Jazz' in the scene when Cushing and his wife are chasing the beatnik chick across the beach for what seems like an hour.

Doctor Terror's House Of Horrors was one of my favorite horror anthology flicks when I was a kid. Loved all those Amicus productions.

[JSngry]

Speaking of the actual Twilight Zone, who wrote the very George Russell-ish cue that was used a few times in Season 1, the thing with the two clarinets and the cup-muted trumpet playing the Lydian lick?

[Teasing the Korean]

Speaking of the actual Twilight Zone, who wrote the very George Russell-ish cue that was used a few times in Season 1, the thing with the two clarinets and the cup-muted trumpet playing the Lydian lick?

Can you either post a video, or give an example of a scene in a particular episode?

[Teasing the Korean]

You don't mean Bernard Herrmann's season 1 opening, do you?

[JSngry]

No, not the theme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thfiCZ1CBX4

4:08 and again at 17:07.

I might be misremembering, but the cup-muted trumpet part showed up in few episodes that season?

No matter, the thing has a very George Russell (of the time) vibe to it, I think.

[Teasing the Korean]

Jazz Theme #3 by Rene Garriguenc. I think it also goes under the title "Street Moods in Jazz." It was not composed for a particular episode; It either was composed as a generic piece for the CBS library or it somehow ended up there. It was available on one of the TZ LPs, the single-disc Twilight Zone CD, and the sadly out-of-print TZ 40th Anniversary CD set. Here it is:

[JSngry]

Thanks, good to know, and I have no idea who this guy is/was. Pretty interesting.

[Teasing the Korean]

Thanks, good to know, and I have no idea who this guy is/was. Pretty interesting.

I'm pretty heavily into soundtracks circa mid-1950s to mid/late 1970s, and I've never encountered his name anyplace except for this one theme.

What odd careers that so many musicians have. Here is a guy who is utterly unknown in the U.S., yet everyone remembers that one piece of music from the Twilight Zone.

While we are on the subject, here are some of Jerry Goldsmith's Twilight Zone "jazz" scores. Jerry claimed in interviews that he did not like jazz very much. If this is true, I find these pieces to be all the more fascinating. There is something about "serious" composers who try to "do jazz." They often get it all wrong on certain levels, but can come up with things that are at least as compelling as any of the best jazz, IMO. I think these pieces are more successful than a lot of the Third Stream stuff I've heard. (And I admit to not having heard some key Third Stream works.)

Edited March 15, 2015 by Teasing the Korean

[Teasing the Korean]

And another Jerry Goldsmith: