Dave Grusin - 3 Days of the Condor (1975)

A great soundtrack to a great movie! Check’em out!

«Dave Grusin adopts a superb white funk sound, incredibly crisp and clean. The orchestra on this album are unbelievably tight, and very funky. It's a mix of short funk themes and longer strings-laden tracks. The theme is superb, and much covered, and check out "Flight Of The Condor".» (Blaxploitation)

«In the 1970s, when prominent movie stars started to become the driving forces behind films, the jazz musician Dave Grusin was a favorite choice for film composer by several above-the-title male actors, notably Robert Redford, Paul Newman, and Warren Beatty. Redford starred in director Sydney Pollack's spy thriller 3 Days of the Condor, and Grusin got the scoring nod. The film was set in the New York City of the present day, the present day being 1975, and Grusin turned in music imbued with familiar elements of jazz fusion and R&B-funk. His "Condor! (Theme From 3 Days of the Condor)" could have been the instrumental track for a Steely Dan song of the time, and "Yellow Panic" was one of several tracks to employ wah-wah guitar à la Shaft. "Yeah! Make it funky," declared Jim Gilstrap at the outset of "I've Got You Where I Want You," a funk workout.» (AMG)

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Richard Thompson - Grizzly Man OST (2005)

«Filmmaker Werner Herzog commissioned legendary guitarist Richard Thompson to compose and perform the musical score for his documentary Grizzly Man, about the life and death of Timothy Treadwell, a man who fled society to live among the grizzly bears in the Alaskan wilderness. In the manner of Thompson's previous film scores, the Grizzly Man album is longer on atmosphere than on songcraft; anyone expecting the British folk-derived melodies of Thompson's most familiar work will be disappointed, though if you love the expressive modalities of his electric guitar playing, there's plenty of them on display, and they conjure up the beautiful but dangerous surroundings of Treadwell's environment very well indeed. Along with some lovely but subdued guitar-based pieces from Thompson, his periodic collaborator Henry Kaiser and Sonic Youth/Wilco interloper Jim O'Rourke sit in for a handful of harsher, atonal pieces that represent the more discordant and unforgiving aspects of life among the bears; fans of Thompson the folkie will probably be turned off by "Big Racket," "Bear Fight," and "Corona for Mr. Chocolate," but those who embraced the expressive angularity of the French-Frith-Kaiser-Thompson recordings will certainly want to hear this. In short, this isn't an essential Thompson release, but his more discerning fans will find it firmly possessed of the great man's magic, and it offers a trip down a few paths he doesn't often visit.» (AMG)

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Crossing the Bridge - The Sound of Istanbul OST (2005)

«Rock, pop, funky, folk curdo, lamenti arabeggianti, clacson. Benvenuti tra le mille voci di Istanbul.

Alexander Hacke che, al di fuori dei suoi Einstürzende Neubaten, aveva composto parte della colonna sonora di La sposa turca, ci porta alla scoperta della scena musicale di Istanbul, fedele al motto confuciano secondo il quale si conoscono un popolo e un luogo entrando in contatto con la loro musica. La Turchia, specie quella che guarda all’Europa, sembra non aver paura delle contaminazioni, forse perché sono solide le radici culturali di base. Il regista Fatih Akin, occidentale d’adozione (vive a Berlino), ci sorprende cogliendo con la macchina da presa sensazioni sonore che vanno dal montante casino della città (traffico, muezzin, grida, vita) alla versione indigena di Music di Madonna fino alla neopsichedelia degli Baba Zula, passando per i dervisci e il folk curdo. Il risultato è il ritratto convincente e coinvolgente di un paese attraverso le sue voci. Come tanti documentari, anche questo Crossing The Bridge (il ponte del titolo è quello sul Bosforo che unisce Oriente e Occidente) pecca a volte di didascalismo, ma è un difetto che gli si perdona volentieri accorgendosi che comunque, con il piede, è impossibile non tenere il ritmo.» (FilmTv)

«If life were fair and film exhibition better, you could watch Fatih Akin's infectiously enjoyable survey of contemporary Turkish music while standing up, or, more ideally, while swaying, spinning and shimmying. To help him with his survey, Mr. Akin, who wrote and directed "Crossing the Bridge" and also served as a camera operator, has enlisted Alexander Hacke, the bassist from the industrial band Einstürzende Neubauten. Narrating in German, the bushy-faced Mr. Hacke makes a wonderfully appealing guide, partly because he's an unabashed enthusiast, partly because he's a genuine character. The musician is clearly following a path laid out for him by the filmmaker, whether he's conducting interviews with fellow musicians or roaming the city's atmospheric streets. Yet while the whole thing could come off as perilously twee, the artificiality of Mr. Hacke's role and the setup only adds to the film's unexpected charm.» […] (Manohla Dargis, The New York Times – full review here)

See also http://www.crossingthebridge.de/

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Manu Dibango - Countdown at Kusini OST (1975)

A fantastic and ultra-unknown (to me, at least) Manu Dibango soundtrack to the equally obscure independent mid-70s movie «Countdown at Kusini» (a drama financed by DST Communications, a subsidiary of Delta Sigma Theta, the world's largest black sorority, and centered around the revolutionary leader of a fictionalized African nation, Fahari, who is being hunted by a mercenary hired by a big corporation disgruntled by the rebel's policies because they are cutting into the company's profits) that I discovered recently at Matsuli Music. Thank you, Matt, for letting me re-post this long-forgotten gem!

«Manu Dibango is one of the original fathers of the Afro-funk scene. His huge worldwide hit 'Soul Makossa' paved the way for artists such as Fela Kuti and Hugh Masekela. This rare soundtrack was produced in tiny quantities for the premiere of the obscure Ossie Davis movie in Seattle in August 1975. Each album is individually numbered, and signed by the cast. It's a superb blend of African rhythms, jazz, and a heavy dose of space jazz and funk. There are too many good tracks to mention, from uptempo dancefloor cuts to slower mellow numbers, all featuring Manu's superb sax playing.» (Blaxploitation.com)

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Ravi Shankar - Charly OST (1968)

A little known and not easy to find soundtrack from Ravi Shankar to Ralph Nelson’s 1968 cultish movie about a mentally retarded man who becomes a genius through scientific experiments. While certainly not the highest peak in the indian master’s extraordinary career, it’s a very fine and enjoyable example of his pioneering work in bringing Indian music to the West.

«This soundtrack is an enchanting group of compositions. The sound that is presented is fundamentally progressive orchestrated world music. The sitar is a beautiful and gentle instrument that is very adaptable and flexible with just about any other genre of music, and this album serves as a fine example of that. […] The sound is superbly rendered and the originality and musicianship is exquisite. If you have been into this music this is a must acquisition, if not and you enjoy world music, then you will love this.» (Progressive World)

Link above!