Peter Erskine / Bob Mintzer / Darek Oles / Alan Pasqua: Standards 2, Movie Music (2011)

Dan McClenaghan

Senior Contributor since 2002

A lover of sounds, and the way they fit together.

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Published: January 31, 2011

Peter Erskine / Bob Mintzer / Darek Oles / Alan Pasqua: Standards 2, Movie Music

Composers of movie soundtracks have crafted some of the most enduring tunes for jazz treatment. Names like Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein
1918 - 1990
composer/conductor , Cole Porter Cole Porter
1891 - 1964
composer/conductor , Krzysztof Komeda Krzysztof Komeda
1931 - 1969
piano , and Ennio Maricone show up in the credits of innumerable albums, with tunes that shape moods and atmospheres, and supply jazz artists with engaging melodies galore.

Drummer Peter Erskine Peter Erskine
b.1954
drums has collected a crack quartet which has, in turn, collected ten tunes from various movie soundtracks for a near perfect jazz outing, one with that swings with the feeling of an Duke Ellington Duke Ellington
1899 - 1974
piano small group outing.

From tenor saxophonist Bob Mintzer Bob Mintzer
b.1953
saxophone 's opening notes, it's apparent that this is a special outing. The rhythm section bounces in on a cloud, with bassist Darek Oles Darek Oles
b.1963
bass, acoustic injecting a powerful buoyancy to the ensemble groove. The tune is Max Steiner's "Tara," from Gone With the Wind (1939), stepping light and easy over spare piano sparkles on a supremely gorgeous opener.

Leonard Bernstein's "Somewhere," from West Side Story (1961), cries to life on Mintzer's achingly lovely saxophone notes. The group plays it straight, before pianist Alan Pasqua Alan Pasqua

piano takes it away on a delicate, swinging rumination on the theme, wrapping up his solo on Erskine's sharp declarations, that invite Mintzer back into the mix.

Standards 2, Movie Music hearkens back to the days when tenor saxophonists Lester Young Lester Young
1909 - 1959
saxophone and Ben Webster Ben Webster
1909 - 1973
sax, tenor were recording small group sets with pianists Teddy Wilson Teddy Wilson
1912 - 1986
piano and Oscar Peterson Oscar Peterson
1925 - 2007
piano , where every note from every player sounded perfect, and the group dynamic seemed impeccable, classy and elegant.

Less familiar, perhaps, are Jerry Goldsmith's "Dr. Kildare" and "Three Stars Will Shine Tonight," from the early to mid-sixties television show, and tunes from two European soundtrack masters—Krzysztof Komeda and Ennio Morricone—invoking a feeling of pathos for "Rosemary's Baby (Main Theme)," and a mood of awe and wonder for "Cinema Paradiso," respectively.

Peter Erskine and his quartet have made a beautiful, classic CD.

Track Listing: Tara's Theme; Somewhere; Dr. Kildare; Three Stars Will Shine Tonight; Night and Day; Rosemary's Baby; Cinema Paradiso Intro; Cinema Paradiso; I Concentrate on You; For All We Know.

Personnel: Bob Mintzer: tenor saxophone; Alan Pasqua: piano; Darek Oles: bass; Peter Erskine: drums.

Record Label: Fuzzy Music