ZULU

JOHN BARRY

Rating:

Original Review: Back in 1964, a young up-and-coming composer by the name of John Barry delivered one of the first outstanding scores of his career for Zulu, an epic-scope adventure set in 1879 during the Boer War. Directed by Cy Enfield and starring Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins and a still unknown Michael Caine, Zulu told the story of 120 British soldiers who, under threat from an advancing army of over 4000 warriors, and against all the odds, successfully defended their stronghold at Rorke's Drift. Despite having just completed assignments on the second James Bond movie From Russia With Love, and with the Seven still very much a part of popular music culture, John Barry's star was still in ascendance, and Zulu was one of the first major motion pictures to bring his fully dramatic work to public attention. This splendid release from Silva Screen marks the first time that the Zulu score has been recorded in true stereo, and fully fleshes out the massive orchestral intensity of this enormous work. The famous pounding main theme, with its tremendous percussion and booming brass, forms the core of the score, and gets several thunderous renditions in 'Main Title', 'News of the Massacre' and 'The Third Assault'. However, the theme is malleable enough to be played in differing styles, and even comes across a slightly comic march in 'Durnford's Horses Arrive and Depart'. The other major elements of the score are two rapturous acapella renditions of 'Men of Harlech', which are performed with a steadfastness and nobility by baritone Leandros Taliotis, and a savage-sounding action cue, 'First Zulu Appearance and Assault' which runs at just over five minutes. As the entire score of Zulu runs for only 20:51, Silva took the opportunity to re-record even more of John Barry's most famous themes in order to flesh out the CD, which now stands as a perfect companion piece to their two previous "Classic Film Music of John Barry" albums released in 1993 and 1996. Then they got a little carried away, and went and turned it into a double-album. Oh, those wags. There's just no stopping them! While some of the pieces included, like the sultry blues of The Specialist and the childlike piano of Mercury Rising, will no doubt be familiar to many fans, some of the other, more obscure titles are certainly welcome additions to any Barry collection. My personal favourites include the smoky, decadent-sounding jazz of The Cotton Club; the sturm und drang choral version of the majestic theme from The Last Valley; the delightfully light and warm flute scherzando from 1975 TV movie Love Among The Ruins; the gloriously haunting string melody from Frances; and the wonderfully vibrant Buffalo Hunt cue from Dances With Wolves, which was used in the film at Costner's request (he wanted a Magnificent Seven-style cue), but which Barry left off his soundtrack album. There are also a couple of curios which British listeners especially will find most amusing, like the piece entitled 'The Girl With The Sun In Her Hair', which was used on a highly successful shampoo commercial during the Sixties, and the 'Florida Fantasy' piece from Midnight Cowboy, which later acted as the main title theme for many BBC TV shows including a cricket programme and a nature programme called Wildtrack. Truly, this is a magnificently put-together album from Silva Screen, who never cease to amaze me with their professionalism, the dedication to quality film music, and the consistent high quality of their releases. The City of Prague Philharmonic, who seem especially good at John Barry's music, are flawless as usual, the liner notes by Barry experts Geoff Leonard and Pete Walker are excellent, and the sound quality is impeccable. I just wish every album could be as good as this one.

Track Listing: Running Time: 101 minutes 36 seconds

Silva Screen FILMXCD-305 (1999)

Music composed by John Barry. Conducted and orchestrated by Nic Raine. Performed by The City of Prague Philharmonic. Featured musical soloists Jan Smolik, Noel Langley, Bohuslav Navratil and Paul Bateman. Recorded and mixed by John L. Timperley and Mike Ross-Trevor. Album produced by James Fitzpatrick.


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