JACK

MICHAEL KAMEN

Rating:

Original Review: Listening to Jack for the first time, you could be forgiven for thinking that Michael Kamen was suffering from an acute case of musical schizophrenia when he wrote it. Jack was directed by Francis Ford Coppola (!) and starred Robin Williams as a boy whose body ages four times quicker than his brain, so much so that when he is ten he looks forty. Kamen's score is, in a word, nutty. The first track, the 'Jack Conga', begins with a last-post style trumpet solo before launching into an annoyingly catchy, completely off the wall Latino rhythm that is actually the score's high point. Pianos tinkle, bongos, er, bong, trumpets blare and, at one point, the whole musical crew goes "Uh!" in unison with the beat. The remaining cues are wild and disparate, and Kamen has written many of his cues as individual instrumental solos. The music fluctuates from being lush and sentimental, to manic and highly strung, and makes inspired use of a wide array of musical styles. On the "peculiar" side of the score, 'Jack Scherzo', is a highly rapid and chaotic piece that unfortunately suffers from a lack of real substance. It's quick and lively enough to be categorised as a scherzo, I'll give them that, but when you compare it to other film music scherzos ('Motorcycle and Orchestra' from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade springs to mind) its limitations are immediately evident. 'Sky' is totally bizarre, with buzzing bee sounds and something similar to a theremin offset with an eclectic wandering piano, but 'The Basketball Game' and 'Treehouse Collapse' are both great cues which almost defy description, combining synthesised singing voices with assorted whistles, whooping sound effects and unidentifiable instruments. The second half of the score is given almost solely to renditions of the childlike central theme first introduced in 'Butterfly'. It re-occurs regularly throughout the remainder of the score, in cues such as the lovely, soft 'Cello Jack' and the upbeat and bouncy 'The Children's Crusade', but it is again based around the recurring four-note motif prevalent in scores such as Robin Hood and Mr. Holland's Opus, which Kamen seems to be churning out with alarming regularity of late. There are a few other cues worth mentioning, such as the tender 'Jack's Collapse' and the touching finale of 'Valedictorian', during which an 18-year old Jack gives his graduation speech with the body of a 72-year old. Taken as a whole, Jack is an enjoyable album. It is far from being Michael Kamen's best work, and is much more a score to listen to whilst in a light-hearted and playful mood rather than one to stir the soul and the spirit. Nevertheless, there is much to recommend here, and if nothing else it gives the listener a chance to hear the work of the Little Man's Chowder and Marching Society Band and Orchestra on Kazoos, Melodicas, Calliopes, Oboi de Castrati, Bells and Whistles. I kid you not!

Track Listing: Running Time: 37 minutes 54 seconds

Hollywood Records 162-063-2 (1996)

Music composed and conducted by Michael Kamen. Performed by The L.A. All Star Orchestra. Orchestrations by Michael Kamen, Bob Elhai, Lolita Ritmanis, Brad Warnaar and John Sacks. Featured musical soloists Rick Baptist, Morty Okin, Pete Escovedo, Mario Grigorov, Frank Marocco, Paula Hochhalter, Fred Tinsley, Bruce Dukov, Marty Krystall, Paul Fried, Vince de Rosa, Dennis Karmazyn, Buell Neidlinger and, leading the Little Man's Chowder and Marching Society Band and Orchestra on Kazoos, Melodicas, Calliopes, Oboi de Castrati, Bells and Whistles, Michael A. Kamen and Stephen P. McLaughlin. Recorded and mixed by Stephen McLaughlin. Edited by Christopher Brooks and David Slusser. Album produced by Michael Kamen, Stephen McLaughlin and Christopher Brooks.


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