Search - Woody Allen :: Film Music

Great music indeed !!!

Matthew G. Sherwin | last seen screaming at Amazon customer service | 04/17/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Woody Allen always had good taste when selecting musical tracks to supplement his films; and this two CD set proves it. Each CD comes packed to the brim with great classic pop vocals and classic instrumentals from the world of jazz, pop and swing music that are sure to please you. These CDs contain previously unreleased music from Allen's films, too, so this is a great two CD set.



The first CD starts off with "Limehouse Blues" performed by the Harry James Quintet. The saxophone wails and the percussion is awesome, too! "Moonlight Becomes You" gives us another very pretty instrumental performed by Harry James & His Orchestra.



Other gems on this first CD include "Make Believe" with its great use of the saxophone from the Woody Allen movie entitled Bullets Over Broadway; "You Took Advantage Of Me" performed by Bunny Berigan and his Blue Boys and "Nagasaki" is quite a hoot performed by The Three Keys with a great piano accompaniment. Terrific!



The George Shearing Quintet performs a beautiful and elegant rendition of "Lullaby Of Birdland;" and "Taking A Chance On Love" features the incomparable Ethel Waters who sings this to perfection!



The second CD also contains a whopping bunch of great numbers. "Twisted" is a more recent tune from the opening of Woody's film entitled Deconstructing Harry. "Twisted" is hysterical--give it a listen and I dare you not to laugh! SMILES Moreover, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald sing their classic rendition of "Dream A Little Dream Of Me" which also comes from the movie Deconstructing Harry. Louis Armstrong is featured again on the track "Walkin' My Baby Back Home" from the movie Mighty Aphrodite. Louis sings this to perfection as only he could--and the trumpet shines on this number, too!



Another track on the second CD gives us Fred Astaire singing a wonderful rendition of "Cheek To Cheek" from the Woody Allen film entitled The Purple Rose Of Cairo. "Alabamy Bound" get good treatment from Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelly; but I was slightly disappointed that this is not the version from the movie in which the characters sing the song. Oh, well.



"After You've Gone" has a musical arrangement that shows sophistication infused by Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang & Their All-Star Orchestra. The liner notes don't say exactly who sang this number; but whoever it was did a great job. The second CD ends with the classic "There'll Be Some Changes Made" performed by The Eddie Condon All Stars. This terrific instrumental gives you the perfect ending to the two CD set.



One thing I must caution you about: There is a fair amount of surface noise on most of these tracks. Apparently Allen felt that this enhanced the beauty of the number for his film. If this bothers you then you might want to look elsewhere for other CD sets with tracks that have been remastered digitally.



The liner notes offer a generous detailing of Woody's life and we get the song credits, too. The photos and art work reflect good judgment, too.



This two CD set gives us a great collection of incredibly good music and vocals Woody Allen used in his films entitled Alice, Bullets Over Broadway, Celebrity, Crimes And Misdemeanors, Deconstructing Harry, Mighty Aphrodite, The Purple Rose Of Cairo and Sweet And Lowdown. It's a special two CD set especially since not all of these films were hits at the box office. These CDs include quite a few tracks that were previously unreleased on any CD compilation of Woody Allen's film music; and that is wonderful. I highly recommend this two CD set for Woody Allen fans and people who enjoy classic pop vocals will cherish this CD. Classic jazz music fans will also like this two CD set.



Enjoy!

"