Search - Lisa Gerrard, Pieter Bourke :: Ali (Score)

Michael Mann's warts-'n'-all biopic of three-time heavyweight boxing champ Muhammad Ali spans the most triumphant and turbulent decade of the legend's career. But like many a film marketing plan, its first soundtrack release seemed more concerned with selling CDs to those less familiar with Ali--and oddly, Mann's powerful film itself--than with accurately documenting the film's true musical soul. This second volume corrects that misstep, collecting much of Lisa Gerrard's and previous collaborator and former Dead Can Dance sideman Pieter Bourke's atmospheric, largely electronic underscore as well as an eclectic, less obviously pop-conscious slate of songs and music by Chicago bluseman Mighty Joe Young, nouveau R&B drum/bass/vocal merchants Dungeon East and Whild Peach, trans-genre cellist Martin Tillman, and Malian vocal legend Salif Keita. It's a release that variously seems better attuned to the director's own adventurous tastes in film scoring, more emblematic of Ali's own complex character and international legacy--and, more importantly, an ambience-rich document of the film's true musical and artistic spirit. --Jerry McCulley