Elmer Bernstein, Composer and Conductor

Today we have a special post devoted to the distinguished film composer and conductor Elmer Bernstein (1922-2004). There's a a newly transferred 1958 LP, Backgrounds for Brando, plus remastered versions of two other albums I have offered before - and a reminder about one of his most famous scores.

Bernstein: Backgrounds for Brando

The title of this Dot LP is a little misleading, in that it might suggest that Bernstein wrote these "backgrounds for Brando." In actuality, he wrote none of the music, although he does indeed conduct the various pieces. (Also, it might suggest that the better-known Leonard Bernstein is conducting.)

Elmer Bernstein's LPs fall into three categories: single-film soundtrack LPs, compilations of his own work, and compilations of other film composers. This one of course falls into the third category; the other albums below contain his own music.

The selections for Backgrounds for Brando are presented in no particular order. The actor's first big success, A Streetcar Named Desire, leads off side two, with the music that Alex North wrote to depict Blanche.

Also included are one of the themes that Bernstein's namesake Leonard wrote for On the Waterfront, and music from the following films: Sayonara (Franz Waxman), Viva Zapata (Manuel Ponce), The Men (Dimitri Tiomkin), Guys and Dolls (Frank Loesser), The Teahouse of the August Moon (Saul Chaplin), Désirée (Alfred Newman and Ken Darby), Julius Caesar (Miklós Rózsa) and The Wild One (Leith Stevens). The excerpt from The Men is the theme "Love Like Ours," which has appeared here recently in a Lisa Kirk vocal collection. This blog has an extensive post devoted to the music from The Wild One as well.

I should mention that the title Backgrounds for Brando should be taken in the broadest sense. Marlon doesn't appear in the Guys and Dolls scene where the selection on the LP (the "Fugue for Tinhorns") is performed.

Themes from the General Electric Theater

I went ahead and remastered the LP Themes from the General Electric Theater, even though I posted it only four years ago, because I thought I could improve the sound. This is one of the LPs where the music is both composed and conducted by Bernstein.

The themes were all written for the 1958-59 season, the program's first. (Yes, its host was future president Ronald Reagan.) The music is excellent and very well performed and recorded.

From watching this show 60 years ago, I still remember the General Electric theme that Bernstein wrote ("Emblem") and the end title background ("Progress"), both of which are wonderful, sweeping pieces of "Old Hollywood" music.

The link for this LP is in the comments to this post and the original post.

Movie and TV Themes Composed and Conducted by Elmer Bernstein

This fine 1962 LP got lost in the shuffle when I posted it eight years ago along with miscellaneous other material. Here is what I wrote then:

"The great film composer conducting some of his best swaggering jazz themes, leading off with the tremendous 'Rat Race.' Played by a stellar ensemble of West Coast musicians."

All true, but it doesn't convey the impact of this excellent record, or its presentation. For one thing, the back cover has information about not only who plays on the LP (a who's who of studio musicians), but the soloists and arrangers (Jack Hayes, Leo Shuken and Ruby Raksin - three old hands at the studios). One of the producers was Tommy Wolf, the songwriter. The label was Choreo, which was owned by Fred Astaire, Wolf, Bernstein and drummer Jackie Mills.

Interestingly, Bud Shank, best known for playing the alto saxophone and flute, plays baritone sax here, and contributes some outstanding solos.

The LP features several of Bernstein's lesser known pieces, but one of the more familiar items is the Sweet Smell of Success theme, which has appeared here before (and is about to do so again - see below).

The link to this LP can be found in the comments to this post and the original post.

Sweet Smell of Success

Bernstein's score to Sweet Smell of Success dates to the early years of the blog. I remastered it a few years ago, and it is still available via the original post.

Here is what I said about Bernstein back then: "Bernstein has an enormous reputation among film music aficionados, although among the general public he doesn't have 1/100 of the reputation of his namesake Lenny - no relation. This is a relatively early score, and a particularly strong one."

Highly recommended - as are all these records.

Elmer Bernstein - Themes for General Electric

Here is a highly enjoyable LP from the great film maestro Elmer Bernstein, conducting his own compositions.

The album includes themes that Bernstein composed for the 1958-59 season of the General Electric Theater. As the cover above tells us, Ronald Reagan, later to become US President, was the host and "program supervisor" for the series - and apparently owned a hunk of it. The show was successful, running for nearly a decade on TV.

Bernstein in the studio, circa late 1950s

That noted authority, Wikipedia, passes along the theory that then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy pressured GE to fire Reagan, insisting that the company would receive no government contracts unless it did so. The whole tale strikes me as being unlikely.

But back to the music, which is highly effective, as usual with Bernstein, a true master. I transferred this record many years ago for sharing on another forum. I recently revisited the files and redid the sound for posting here.

The LP is strongly recommended if you like film music.

More New Items, Reups and Remasters

Hopefully we have something for everyone today, with reups by request, remastered items, and a few things that have never appeared here before. The latter, transferred many years ago, have been rescued from the nether regions of my storage drives, and refurbished just for you.

As always, the links to these discs are in the comments to this post. These are all in Apple lossless format, unless noted.

NEW ITEMS

Elmer Bernstein - Movie and TV Themes: The great film composer conducting some of his best swaggering jazz themes, leading off with the tremendous "Rat Race." Played by a stellar ensemble of West Coast musicians (including George Roberts). Recorded in 1962.

Music from Million Dollar Movies - Boston Pops-Fiedler: A favorite from my long-gone youth, the impossibly glamorous sound of the Boston Pops with glittering film themes. Features Pops pianist Leo Litwin in the Warsaw Concerto and other such sub-Rachmaninoff fare.

REUPS

Rubbra - Symphony No. 5 (mp3): The first recording of an Edmund Rubbra symphony, with Sir John Barbirolli leading his Hallé Orchestra.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Blessed Assurance (remastered): Vivid recording of the wonderful gospel singer from the early 50s. (A little noisy.)

Beethoven - Symphony No. 8 (Vienna PO - Böhm) (remastered): An outstanding performance by the Vienna Philharmonic and Karl Böhm, a favorite conductor of this blogger. From 1953.

Beethoven - Symphony No. 9 (Vienna SO - Böhm) (remastered): Very fine performance and recording by Böhm and the other noted Vienna ensemble, with soloists from the Vienna State Opera. A few sonic burbles.

Desert Song and Roberta (mp3): Blog favorite Gordon MacRae in two potted operettas.

Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae - Kiss Me Kate: Stafford and MacRae were wonderful individually, even more so together.

Johnny Desmond - Play Me Hearts and Flowers (remastered): 1953-55 Coral sides from the crooner, who was then adopting a more dramatic approach a la Eddie Fisher.

Sweet Smell of Success

In a small tribute to the actor Tony Curtis, who died last week, I thought I might upload the soundtrack to one of his films. For some reason, Curtis appeared in a great number of movies that had notable scores, including Trapeze, The Vikings, Kings Go Forth, Spartacus, Taras Bulba, Paris - When It Sizzles, and others. Here is 1957's Sweet Smell of Success, which featured Curtis in his first "serious" role, and composer Elmer Bernstein in his best swaggering jazz mode.

Life Magazine ad

The ironically titled Sweet Smell was actually a particularly poisonous film noir tale of power and corruption - a genre that flourished in the supposedly placid and conformist 50s.

Whether you think Curtis was effective in such dramas or not, there is no doubt that he had a gift for farce, most notably in Billy Wilder's 1959 classic-in-drag, Some Like It Hot, in which Tony ends up with Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon gets Joe E. Brown.

I think Elmer Bernstein is making his first appearance on this blog, unless my fallible memory and labelling system are both failing me. Bernstein has an enormous reputation among film music aficionados, although among the general public he doesn't have 1/100 of the reputation of his namesake Lenny - no relation. This is a relatively early score, and a particularly strong one.

I should point out that some of the music on the soundtrack was composed by jazz musicians Chico Hamilton and Fred Katz, who appeared in the film as part of Hamilton's quintet. Decca also released an LP of music from the film as performed by this group. The Hamilton quintet does not appear on this album, which features a studio group conducted by Bernstein. The back cover below has more information.