Intrada Soundtrack Forum

11/4/10

Are you a fan of Elmer Bernstein? If so, you've got a treat in store. Fan of John Williams? Same treat's in store. Read on and find out why.

If you enjoy TV shows, or DVDs of them anyway, you may have discovered this already. Otherwise, if you're a fan of the above composers you should check out the new 3-DVD set of the complete series STACCATO. It debuted in 1959 and ran just the one season, so it's pretty easy to swallow. (You'll find it being marketed as JOHNNY STACCATO, albeit the actual series title remains the truncated STACCATO.)

It's general knowledge in TV land that PETER GUNN made a huge impact the year earlier. That show featured Craig Stevens as a private eye who took breaks from detective work by hanging out at Mother's, a local night club, and listened to jazz. The jazz was, of course, penned by Henry Mancini, who not only had spectacular success with his music but also created a chartbusting LP, a big first for a TV score. It also started a really hot trend in TV scoring at the time. Witness STACCATO. With TV producers eager to capture more lightning in a bottle, another private eye show was launched, this one with John Cassavetes in the lead. The new wrinkle - this time our private eye not only hangs out at the local night club to listen to jazz - he plays it! Yep, the musical private eye. And the music he plays? Written by Elmer Bernstein, landing his first important TV assignment. Bernstein contributes all the music played by the combo on screen (featuring real session players) as well as the exciting theme and background scores for the episodes. It was really hot stuff. And as sure as dogs get fleas, a record album was released on Capitol, featuring selections from both Bernstein's combo writing and his bigger cues.

So where's the beef... er, the connection to John Williams? Though his composing career was still ahead of him, John Williams was the session pianist in the combo. Hardcore fans of the album may have known this already but unless you're really hardcore, you may not have known that Johnny (as in Williams, not Staccato) also appears ON SCREEN! Watch the pilot and enjoy seeing Cassevetes tickling the ivories with the group, then taking a call and waving over to another pianist to take over for him. Then watch with a smile as a very young Johnny Williams nods and sits down at the piano to take over. (For doubters that assume he was never this young, catch his credit as a combo player in the end credits for proof.) Anyway, this living legend of more famous movie scores than you can shake a stick at is right there, with nary a clue as to all those sharks and superheroes and star warriors and UFOs and archaeologist/adventurers and natural disasters and Hogwarts students and extra-terrestrials and kids stuck home alone and you name it coming up ahead.

As you watch him simply playing the piano, what fun it is to ponder the thought!

1/5/10

Finally! We've been shipped our replacement discs to SPACECAMP from Sony's plant. We'll begin sending them out to people on our lists either separately, with pending orders for other titles or with your orders for our two newest releases for Tuesday, November 8... assuming you folks support the new titles. Even if you don't you'll get SPACECAMP. Please trash the previous pressing to avoid confusion but keep your jewel case and graphics. We're obviously just sending out the discs themselves. (We even corrected the product number typo on the label. You'll know you're getting a good copy because the volume number on the disc and the number on the spine of the packaging now match.) As promised, we're paying all the extra freight. It was our boo-boo, not yours. All you have to do is enjoy the new discs when they get to you.

As to the two newest releases: one's a single score on a two-CD set at the attractive price of a single disc (19.99). It's in our non-limited MAF series and will be available for awhile. It should never be out of print as far as I'm concerned. Truth-be-told, few film scores surpass this one. It's one of my absolute all-time spot on without a doubt favorites, too. (Ok, so I'll chill with the hype.) Anyway, you no doubt own the first disc in the set (except for the "extras") but the second disc has never been on a CD before. And a classic LP cover finally shows up on CD for the first time, too!

Our other title has its roots in a pulsating seventies-era LP as well, but now includes several previously unreleased cues in the "extras" section, all mastered from the original multi-track stereo session masters. This one is a limited edition. Hopefully one or both of these new releases will strike your fancy!

11/16/10

Next week will be kind of special for Intrada, and me in particular. 25 years ago, I started this label. Amongst our landmarks were launching the concept of limited editions with full AFM and studio cooperation, opening doors with Walt Disney and nearly every other major studio over the years, convincing Jerry Goldsmith of the then-novel idea of going back and re-recording an early film score and numerous other cool happenings that helped usher all of us soundtrack fans to this exciting place we're at today.

We'll be releasing two new CDs this coming Tuesday (November 23) in our customary manner, with the titles and sound samples being posted this coming Monday eve. While both titles are pretty cool, one of them exhibits a degree of importance to our label... and me personally. You'll no doubt already own much of the score. In fact, it's a part of our history. But you've never owned it like this.

For our 25th Anniversary, enjoy a true world premiere release of one of the great action scores of all time, now in a 2-CD set, newly mixed and mastered from the actual session multi-tracks, complete for the first time and presented in film order... with the composer's own uniquely-assembled album (the one you'll be familiar with) on a second bonus disc. We've also included some pretty exciting and rare extras discovered only on the multi-track masters. (All previous issues have come from existing 1/4" album masters.) Our new release provides cleaner sound and more music than ever before.

For those curious, the main reason for releasing this project is due my own interest in having one particular release that not only identifies with Intrada's history but is quite frankly, one of my own personal favorite projects to have ever been associated with. My liner notes discuss the music, of course, but also provide a glimpse at what Intrada has been for me. I tried not to ramble at length about our entire 25 year history and kept the text mostly relevant to the score and composer at hand. But there is a little bit of "memory lane" none-the-less. (I'll only have a 25th anniversary once.) Anyway, hopefully you'll enjoy reading a little bit about us (and me) while you listen.

If the above teaser doesn't pique your interest, hopefully the fact that this special 2-CD set including the extras comes packaged for the reasonable price of a single disc.

Trust me on one thing at least: if you love this score - and most people I know do - this is surely the definitive presentation of it. The composer loved his score and the album he prepared from it. I only wish he were here to share in the spotlight today. I hope you'll enjoy having this 25th Anniversary Intrada release in your library.

11/23/10

People may say it doesn't but it does. Time flies. For me, 25 years has gone by in what seems like a flash. Seems like only yesterday I was celebrating the birth of my first daughter, Regina. Now, 25 years later, she works as Intrada's production assistant, helping Joe coordinate the parts he needs to do our graphics. 25 years ago I gathered a small group of partners together and started a record label. Album number one came late in 1985. Relationships with studios and composers grew, Veronika arrived, Regina now had a baby sister, more projects followed, challenges, triumphs, Intrada went from a partnership to a corporation, 25 years went by and here we be. Time does fly. My sincere appreciation goes out to our loyal group of customers, movie music fans, industry professionals and just plain nice folks who were responsible for making these 25 years a success. Without you, Intrada would not be here. Thank you.

11/26/10
For those of you who enjoyed feasting on Thanksgiving yesterday, you no doubt have leftovers everywhere today. If you don't celebrate this uniquely American event, which I did with my sister, I imagine you had something good to eat for dinner just the same.

With bundles of new soundtrack CDs coming out from every direction, here's hoping you have funds to get what you'd really like to own and - perhaps the toughest part - find time to listen to them!