Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers Avec Barney Wilen - "Lis Liaisons Dangereuses 1960"

Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers Avec Barney Wilen – Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960

Vinyl LP, Stereo Japanese Pressing

Fontana

One of the last things Boris Vian did before his passing, was to appear in Roger Vadim's Les Dangereuses 1960. A great album with a fantastic soundtrack by Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers... I think. For some reason the film credits mentions Thelonous Monk doing the score, which as far as I know, is not the case. And also someone else has claimed that they did the score as well. So its a bit of a mystery to me, but on the other hand it sure sounds like Art Blakey.

The album by all means, is a classic. It really conveys to me the importance of Jazz in French films during the 1950s as well as the early '60s. One wonders why it stopped? Nevertheless this updated version of the Libertine classic is the gateway to the morals of the 1960s or at the very least one can hear the door opening to something forbidden. The music is very sexy, and like champagne it can go to one's head, and by next morning one knows you were hit by a small bomb behind the ear lobe.

Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers - "Des Femmes Disparaissent & Les Tricheurs" CD Compliation

Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers – Des Femmes Disparaissent & Les Tricheurs

CD Compliation, 1988

Fontana

It starts off with the Blakey drums, dark, mysterious, and that goes into another world. Then the brass comes in and it welcomes the listener to something wonderful.  Jazz to me is a tremendous aspect of film soundtracks -that is not used anymore. Jazz conveys a mood and it seems the Europeans had a natural relationship with the (mostly) American sound which goes with whatever is up on the screen. Also TV shows from the 50's and early 60's had nice Jazz music for instance “Peter Gunn” written by Mancini, that's marvellous. This album is two soundtracks combined, one is the music to the 1959 French film Des Femmes Disparaissent starring Boris Vian's friend Magali Noel and the great French singer Philippe Clay.  The other is Les Tricheurs.

I never seen the films, but listening to this soundtrack I get images in my head, which is the best for me. I love soundtrack albums, but it doesn't necessary mean I would like the film or even how the music is used in that movie. No, I like it because it's abstract to me, it stands by itself and this album reeks of mood, that's smokey and obviously in the middle-of-the-night feeling. If one is to make choices in life, a soundtrack can supply the right melody with the right mood – and therefore its a life worth living.