Thursday, December 1st, 2011
KHCD-ST012 (STEREO – Slaughter On Tenth Avenue – Soundtrack to the 1957 Universal-International Motion Picture – Music by Richard Rodgers – Joseph Gershenson/Universal-International Orchestra – The book “The Man Who Rocked The Boat” by William J. Keating and Richard Carter was the basis of this movie, dubbed a “documentary” drama about New York City docks. The music by Richard Rodgers was taken from the 1936 ballet score of the same name (which is featured at the end of Rodgers and Hart’s musical comedy On Your Toes) but has nothing to do plot-wise with the movie. The music adapted very well, though, to the film’s “mayhem, mobsters and murder” theme. This transcription is from a near-mint (pre-MCA) Decca (US) black with silver print label LP; I’ve added a bit of “air” to the sound to compensate for the rather dry studio-bound acoustic.. The result is quite satisfying, and brings an important movie score back into circulation. Produced by customer request; thanks to Bill Gilardon, leader of the Chicago Grandstand Big Band for suggesting this project. Click here for an MP3 sample from the soundtrack.
Thanks for checking us out – more postings to come! Cheers – Curt Timmons