TRAFFIC: THE MINISERIES

JEFF RONA

Rating:

Original Review by Peter Simons: A mini series based on a film which itself was based on a mini series, Traffic shows the public a glimpse of the grim world of drug trafficking. The show, directed by Eric Bross and Stephen Hopkins, is a three-part event starring Elias Koteas, Balthazar Getty and Martin Donovan. In the first episode, Mike McKay (Koteas) is sent to Afghanistan to dismantle its drug export operation. In the second episode, Ben Edmonds (Getty) deals with illegal aliens that are being transported from China to the US in cargo containers. Finally, Adam Kadyrov (Donovan) is an illegal immigrant in the US awaiting the arrival of his wife and child. Soon he learns that the ship carrying his family has sunk. As he starts his personal investigation he discovers a grim truth.

Traffic: The Miniseries was nominated for three Emmy awards and won the 2004 Artios Awards from the Casting Society of America. The series is based on the Oscar-winning Steven Soderbergh movie from 2000, starring Benicio Del Toro, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. That film itself was based on a British mini series from 1989 called Traffik, directed by Alastair Reid and starring Bill Paterson and Lindsay Duncan, and which was nominated for several BAFTA Awards in the UK.

Over the years Jeff Rona has made a steady career for himself. Though not always in the limelight, he has constantly worked on film scores such as The In Crowd, Shelter Island, Exit Wounds and most notably Ridley Scott’s White Squall; as well as several respected television show like Chicago Hope, The Dead Zone and Tom Clancy’s Netforce. He has also contributed his talents to better known productions such as Gladiator, Mission Impossible II, The Fan, Prince of Egypt and Black Hawk Down. Recently he scored the Sci-Fi Channel’s epic miniseries Earthsea. It should not come as much of a surprise that Rona was asked to score the TV miniseries based on Traffic, since he contributed greatly to Cliff Martinez’s score for the Soderbergh-film by providing some of the synthesizer sounds as well as by actually writing a handful of cues.

The soundtrack for Traffic: The Miniseries opens with its main title theme: a melancholy cue that features an understated yet powerful theme for strings and Lisbeth Scott’s vocals, accompanied by ethnic drum loops and echoing synth sounds. A saz and some ethnic flutes also make an early appearance in this cue. This combination of slick electronic loops and ethnic instruments sets the tone for the seventy minutes that are to follow. “Journey” features some of the same sounds Rona and Martinez used in the film Traffic, but this time Rona adds a little more percussion and, if only briefly, even a rather nice theme for piano.

One of the biggest differences with Cliff Martinez’ film score is that Rona’s music is constantly in motion, not only through the use of sampled and live drums, but perhaps even more so through the lead synth sounds, most of which have a definite percussive quality to them. Rona adds an echo to many of these sounds, creating subtle rhythmic patterns. Martinez’s score was a tad more ambient or ‘droning’ if you will. However, the most important and most interesting difference between the film score and the TV score is that Rona employs a dozen live musicians, lending the score an acoustic quality that Martinez’ music was lacking. Though it’s hard to pinpoint any specific emotions in Rona’s score (something one could consider a good thing, as it leaves the music much more open for personal interpretation), it does generally feel more upbeat than Martinez’s rather depressing soundscapes.

“The Illegals”, for example, features solos for duduk and saz, while “The Bus Home” makes good use of Mamak Khadem’s Middle Eastern sounding vocals. “Above the Hills” contains some live percussion that adds a loungy coolness to the cue. “Adam in America” reprises the piano theme heard in “Journey”. “Cityscape” sounds fairly aggressive through its use of sharply cut samples and somewhat distorted drum loops, while some vintage synth noises provide “Bugging” with an appropriate hi-tech feel.

“Hospital/Russian Story” sees some fast-paced saz playing offset against ultra modern synth arpeggios and electro drum loops. The score’s main theme is reprised in both “Rushing to Get Out” and “Run Like Hell”, and reaches almost epic proportions in the latter cue, though its appearance is cut short a little too abruptly. This is the one cue where the presence of live strings (rather than sampled ones) would have added just that bit of extra emotion the cue is currently lacking. The album draws to a satisfying end with “Top of the Mountain”, a cue that is essentially an extended version of the main title with Lisbeth Scott performing over layers of strings, ethnic flutes and percussion.

Tech junkies know that Rona is an expert in the field of software synthesizers and samplers – the composer has recently released his own set of sample CDs called Liquid Cinema – and for them there’s a lot to enjoy in Traffic. However, regardless of the amount of software Rona has used on his score, the addition of live musicians gives the music a real acoustic personality that otherwise may have been impossible to achieve. It certainly speaks in favour of Rona that, despite his obvious passion for electronic gizmos, he doesn’t blindly rely on them.

Sharing Rona’s love for synths and samplers, I found myself enjoying the exotic flavours and rhythmic undercurrent of Traffic: The Miniseries very much, yet it’s difficult to wholeheartedly recommend this score to just anybody. Cliff Martinez’s Traffic did not attract a lot of fans and most critics dismissed the score as ‘droning’ and therefore ‘boring’, which coincidentally is also how they feel about most of Rona’s work. That’s unfortunate and short-sighted since the LA native goes out of his way to create continuously moving synth pads and rhythmic accompaniments. Rona’s score is a whole different entity and deserves a chance as such.

Track Listing: Running Time: 70 minutes 27 seconds

Varèse Sarabande 302 066 544-2 (2004)

Music composed by Jeff Rona. Featured musical soloists Mamak Khadem, Lisbeth Scott, Martin Tillman, Jen Kuhn, Gregg Lehrman, Peter Freeman, Scott Bross, Lucky Westfall, Rubik Haratoonian, Loga Ramin Torkian, Mammad Mohsenzadeh and Jeff Rona. Recorded and mixed by Jeff Rona. Mastered by Rob Beaton. Album produced by Jeff Rona.

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