Intrada Soundtrack Forum

INTRADA Announces:



MACKENNA'S GOLD/IN COLD BLOOD
Composed and Conducted by QUINCY JONES

INTRADA Special Collection 391

Intrada presents two Quincy Jones' scores one CD — MacKenna's Gold premieres alongside his Oscar-nominated In Cold Blood. Up first is Mackenna’s Gold, freshly mixed from the 8-track record album recording sessions and using the 2-track RCA album masters, making a powerful argument for Jones’ versatility. While he undeniably brought his pop expertise to bear in the groovy keyboards and drums, his orchestral acumen and training with Nadia Boulanger are on full display. Whether in the quasi-religioso feeling and harmonically rich writing or the harrowing percussion and brass featured in this score, his mastery is clear. Jones partnered with Carl Foreman and Puerto Rican singer José Feliciano, in his film debut, to create “Ole Turkey Buzzard.” The ballad charts the course of a raptor who waits hungrily for the death that follows where men lust for gold.

The film stars Gregory Peck as Mackenna, a prospector-turned-lawman who lays eyes on a map to the legendary Cañon del Oro—a gold-rich canyon supposedly protected by vengeful Apache spirits. His knowledge makes him invaluable to his old rival, the bandit Colorado (Omar Sharif). Mackenna agrees to cooperate, both to save his own skin and to protect an abductee, Inga (Camilla Sparv). The story climaxes with a vertiginous battle to the death and an earth-shaking finale.

In complete contrast to MacKenna's Gold, the black-and-white thriller In Cold Blood is sourced from Truman Capote’s famous book, based on his investigations into a quadruple murder that took place in Holcomb, Kansas, in 1959. Killers Perry Smith and Dick Hickock (Robert Blake and Scott Wilson) and their crime captivated the public imagination with its brutality and senselessness.

Quincy Jones’ score for In Cold Blood is a jazz fever dream, shot through with weird instrumental and vocal effects. Often, the ensemble is a thicket of nervous energy, twitchy and unpredictable. Elsewhere it becomes a slow-motion nightmare, a morass of dissonance and sliding pitches. Even more than on Mackenna’s Gold, Jones engaged with the sound design, layering dissonant woodwinds over screeching bus brakes, using water-filled bottles during a bluesy interlude where the killers scavenge glass, and suggesting a heartbeat in anticipation of the haunting finale.

Both scores show different sides of Quincy Jones and both are presented from well-preserved master elements at Sony Pictures.

INTRADA Special Collection 391
Barcode: 7 20258 53910 6
Retail Price: $19.99
SHIPPING NOW
Click here for track listing and sound samples.
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.1 ... gory=22848

This is incredible; two of my absolute favorite 60s albums from quality master tapes. It is also fortuitous, because In Cold Blood is the one album on the Quincy Jones Universal France set that sounds to me like it could have been sourced from vinyl.

Thank you, thank you, and thank you.

A fine release! Thank you, Intrada.

Hey, the two LPs I brought along to a record-store personal appearance for Jones to autograph for me in 1973! Both great albums, but shucks; I'll just force myself not to dwell on Roger's sad clue now meaning that MACKENNA'S GOLD is the MIA Western score which we'll never see released in full. I guess I'll pick this up, though, to make sure my vinyl copies stay pristine for a few more decades!

It is extremely rare for any decent film recording elements to exist for '60s and early '70s Columbia Pictures productions, so I never expect those to premiere. Cromwell and See No Evil are the only exceptions that spring to mind.

Great pairing, instant purchase for me.
Nice job Intrada

Are these re-recordings? I've never had the vinyl or that German thing so I have no idea.

_________________
Grail: ONE OF OUR DINOSAURS IS MISSING (Ron Goodwin)

_________________
Grail: ONE OF OUR DINOSAURS IS MISSING (Ron Goodwin)

Yeah, Jones' score for MacKenna's Gold is far greater than the film itself. The film is the true turkey.

Quincy Jones is known for a lot in his extremely successful and illustrious career, but it will always be his contributions to '60s/'70s cinema and television that I will appreciate most. Stanley Wilson developed the best.

This is more than nice.

Whenever my brother and I pass through Kansas on a road trip I have a thoughts of exciting the interstate and driving the extra one hundred miles to Holcomb, the place where Perry and Dick murdered the farm family in the middle of night. The time frame always placed us in town between midnight and 2:00 AM. Not a good time to drive around looking for the Clutter house, especially since our names are Jerry and Vic.

_________________
"I used to worry about losing my mind. Now that I've lost it I don't worry about it anymore." -Wavy Gravy

Can anyone explain why the English version of the song on the new Mackenna's Gold cd is different from the version that was on the LP that I bought in the UK when the film came out.

This isn't a complaint, just a query, when I played the cd yesterday, the difference was striking.

On the original album the English version had the same backing as the Spanish version, on the new cd it has a more orchestral backing and the words are slightly different.

First time I heard it. it completely threw me as it wasn't what I was expecting.

It's a fabulous release, very pleased with the sound quality and presentation, just puzzled about the song.