He’s best known the high-profile producer for Michael Jackson and Frank Sinatra, but continuing a mini-series, a small selection of key moments in the conductor and composer’s film and TV work. Instantly recognisable is that cheeky, upbeat theme from the 1969 Michael Caine comedy crime thriller. But what is often overlooked, as shown here on the non-lyric version, are the extraordinary layers of jazzy experimental joy, from the funky percussion to clarinet, brass section and flute.
The melodramatic siren sound at the beginning of the theme from the TV cop show Ironside might be even more familiar as signalling a big fight scene in Quentin Tarantino’s film Kill Bill, but the real killer moments in this piece come later, with that unstoppable horn section, funky flute and saxophone - jazz and funk intertwining in a melee of imagined street action. This track is also on Quincy Jones’s 1971 album Smackwater Jack.
And finally, a tour de force, the full music from 1967’s In The Heat Of The Night from the film starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger, with a superb opening song performed by Ray Charles (lyrics by Lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman) and the orchestral range used to full effect, along with some of his key players Bobby Scott on tack piano, Roland Kirk on (talking) flute, Billy Preston on organ and Ray Brown on bass, and The Raenettes on backing vocals. The full soundtrack is well worth hearing outside of watching the film, including songs sung by Glen Campbell and Gil Bernal. The whole piece is evocative of violence, tenderness, romance, conjuring up many other evolving moods, themes and scenes, with the opening song echoed in different forms. Jones’s talent was formed in the world of jazz, but here it blossoms and matures in classical and funk hybrids, and much of this is echoed in his later work.
In the heat of the night
Seems like a cold sweat
Creeping cross my brow, oh yes
In the heat of the night
I'm a-feeling motherless somehow
Stars with evil eyes stare from the sky
(In the heat of the night)
Ain't a woman here before
Knows how to make the morning come
So hard to keep control
Well I could sell my soul for just a little light
In the heat of the night
I've got trouble wall to wall
Oh yes I have
I repeat in the night
Must be an ending to us all
Oh Lord, it won't be long
Yes, just you be strong
And it'll be all right
In the heat of the night.
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