COBB

ELLIOT GOLDENTHAL

Rating:

Original Review: Savagely growling and snarling with a deepening sense inner power and uncontrollable turmoil, Elliot Goldenthal's score for Cobb tries to be the musical embodiment of the man who was as famous for his ill temper and eccentric ways as he was for being arguably one of the greatest baseball players of all time - Ty Cobb. As played by Tommy Lee Jones, the grand old man of the diamond tells his life story to an impressionable young sports reporter (Robert Wuhl) for an article but, even as he tries to sanitise his tale for publication, the simmering anger and unpredictability of Cobb's nature continues to show itself.

Goldenthal's score combines elements of the soulful gospel music that Cobb would have heard in childhood, with tracks of slightly nervous Americana that celebrates the glory of the national pastime while reflecting the dark figure of the man who excelled at it. Two musical motifs dominate the score - the gloomily elegiac but solemnly attractive 'Cooperstown Aria' and the massive, percussive 'Reno Ho!', probably the most driving, dramatic and (in my opinion) enjoyable single piece of Goldenthal's career to date. Other cues of note include the rapid violin strokes of 'Stump Meets Cobb' and the 'Sour Mash Scherzo', the sleazy saxophone jazz of 'Nevada Nightlife' and 'Meant Monk', the surprising beauty of 'The Homecoming' and 'Cobb Dies' and the eerily tonal smoothness of 'Winter Walk', 'Heart and Hunter' and 'The Baptism', which are offset by the thunderous crashing dissonance of 'Newsreel Mirror', 'Georgia Peach Rag' and the cacophonous 'The Beast Within' (a cue which has been tracked in from his own Alien 3 album).

Certainly, the Cobb album is an eclectic set of cues, but superbly entertaining ones nonetheless, and ones which certainly do more to illustrate the compositional diversity of Goldenthal than any other CD before or since. In addition to the above, Goldenthal takes the unusual step of singing the superb opening 'Variations on an Old Baptist Hymn' himself, with a vocal manner not too dissimilar to Joe Cocker, as well as doing the duties on the subsequent old-fashioned pianola rags featured in 'Newsreel Mirror' and 'Georgia Peach Rag'.

I have often said in the past that I would love to hear what Elliot Goldenthal would come up with on a score which needed absolutely no dissonance, and required him to come up with the most beautiful melody possible. There have been moments here and there, in Alien 3, Interview With The Vampire and Michael Collins, which have hinted at this, but Cobb is the closest we've got so far to hearing just that. I appreciate his talent, and can acknowledge the musical complexity it must take to create the varied scores that have littered his career, but I have never really *enjoyed* listening to an Elliot Goldenthal score before - until now. I doubt I need to spell it out any further, but here it is anyway - Cobb is my favourite Elliot Goldenthal score to date.

Track Listing: Running Time: 42 minutes 55 seconds

Sony Classical SK-66923 (1994)

Music composed by Elliot Goldenthal. Conducted by Jonathan Sheffer. Orchestrations by Robert Elhai and Elliot Goldenthal. Featured musical soloists Phil Smith, Billy Drewes, Bill Mays, John Beal, Jamie Haddad and Elliot Goldenthal. Recorded and mixed by Joel Iwataki. Edited by Dan Carlin. Album produced by Matthias Gohl.


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