night mood

punchline
Originally uploaded by thebeathunters.

CHARLES GROSS:NIGHT SONG
from PUNCH LINE soundtrack, A&M records 1988
finding a nice track buried in obscure, silly or unexpected filmscores are always a thrill and i know some of you out there enjoyed bill conti's and dave grusin's tracks on previous posts.
this one has very little funk or rare groove appeal, it's rather a deep and soulful piece of music
i haven't seen punchline (starring a very young tom hanks and sally field) and the lp cover sure has little appeal. but on the back a few names arose my curiosity. with mark egan on bass, danny gottlieb-drums, mitch foreman-keyboards and eugene friesen on cello, it couldn't be that bad.
egan/gottlieb was pat metheny's early and sought-after rythm section, with several albums as leaders (ok, sometimes on the verge of "musician's musicians" material- which could mean boring). anyway, this strange combination itself: comedy soundtrack vs.jazz fusion players deserved an ear shot (think about bill cosby experiments for instance) and interesting moments are scattered all along the album (a few bad ones too) but this track got me.
it's deep, moody, haunted, beautiful.
/track deleted
i didn't find really interesting stuff about mr gross. he's a composer, arranger, music director for both movie/tv scores and broadway musicals. among what predominently appears like b-movie material, his hits include air america and turner&hooch (another early hanks fling)
my lp copy is a little scratchy and if only for this track, i'd probably indulge in cd format, which is probably out of print and sure 50c or $-bin bargain stuff.
IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
as far as cello and soulful music is involved, i have to mention THE SUBURBS ARE KILLING US for a recent post of sublime music by ANJA LECHNER & VASSILIS TSABROPOULOS. i rushed to the store to buy copies of CHANTS, HYMNS AND DANCES (yes, i had to spread it around!) i guess it's very efficient blogpromo-if such impact still had to be proved.
lately, THE NUMBER ONE SONGS IN HEAVEN 's selection was really a treat.
if by any chance you missed it, thanks to JAZZ AND CONVERSATIONfor a more than fascinating WIRED prospective reading about online entertainment THE LONG TAIL