From one jazz giant to another, this time led by tenor saxophone, with Sonny Rollins’s superb soundtrack composition to another Michael Caine film, 1966’s tale of that cheeky Cockney lothario. The whole album expresses swinging London, with the saxophone, moving around a main, recurring theme, capturing the adventurous, carefree improvisational boldness of Alfie, but of course with a dark side. Rollins is backed by a band Jimmy Cleveland, JJ Johnson on trombone, Phil Woods on alto Sax Bob Ashton also on tenor, Danny Bank on baritone sax, Roger Kellaway on piano, Kenny Burrell on Guitar, Walter Booker, on bass, Frankie Dunlap on drums and Oliver Nelson, who arranged the score and conducted. Below there’s also a live version from 1973, and the film trailer, which presents it as a saucy, “delightful comedy”, but of course the subtext, and the setting of 60s London, is really much darker than that.
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