Dr. Z

Die Hamburger Jazzszene ihre Vielfalt und Lebendigkeit bringen so manchen Musikliebhaber zum Schwärmen. Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg fanden sich in der Stadt an der Elbe hunderte spielhungriger Bands zusammen, für die bald auch unzählige Auftrittsorte entstanden. Der Cotton Club oder Dennis Swing Club wer kennt sie nicht? Für die Fans des Hamburger Jazz und alle, die mehr darüber erfahren möchten, entstand diese umfangreiche Kollektion. In Wort, Bild und Ton wird der Werdegang einer einmaligen Szene lebendig: von der Zeit, als die Hafenstadt in Trümmern lag, bis hin zum Sound von heute. Sie halten ein Set in Händen, das aus 18 CDs und einem 300 Seiten starken Buch besteht.

Hudson Hawk was an action-comedy vehicle for a post-Die Hard Bruce Willis, directed by Michael Lehmann. Willis plays Eddie Hawkins, a master thief who, on the day of his parole from prison, suddenly finds himself blackmailed into committing a series of elaborate heists. The complicated plot involves the Italian Mafia, an evil international conglomerate, the artwork of Leonardo da Vinci, and a machine that turns lead into gold, but it’s really just an excuse for Willis and his co-star Danny Aiello to engage in various globe-trotting escapades of comic tomfoolery. The film co-stars Andie MacDowell, James Coburn, and Richard E. Grant, and unfortunately was an enormous box-office flop; audiences seemingly couldn’t reconcile Willis’s tough guy persona with the film’s slapstick comedy action, bizarre sound effects, and surreal humor. Musically, Hudson Hawk is an enjoyable oddity. One of the conceits in the story is that the characters played by Willis and Aiello often spontaneously burst into song, as a way to synchronize the timing of their heists. The pair sing several tracks, two of which – Bing Crosby’s “Swinging on a Star” from Going My Way (which won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 1944), and Paul Anka’s “Side by Side” – are featured on the film’s soundtrack.

1997 recording from Montserrat Caballe featuring 16 duets with international stars such as Johnny Hallyday and Khadja Nin from France, Carlos Cano from Spain, Marco Masini from Italy, Gotthard from Switzerland, Rene Froger from Holland & others…

Most soundtracks simply feature the film's incidental music or songs that were heard in the background throughout the movie. Not Natural Born Killers. Assembled by Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), the soundtrack to Oliver Stone's brutally warped serial killer saga recreates the hallucinatory feeling of the film…

Jazz pianist Beegie Adair has undertaken a series of songbook recordings devoted to particular songwriters of the classic pop era, calling them the "romantic songs of," each one, even though she isn't particularly strict about that definition. This one of music by Irving Berlin is typical. (In what sense are "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "White Christmas," or "God Bless America" "romantic songs"? Since no one is singing the lyrics, maybe it doesn't matter.) Adair leads a trio through instrumental treatments that adhere closely to the melodies most of the time, although she does introduce variations and brief improvisations. More adventurous jazz fans may find the results tame, but casual music lovers can program this disc beside previously issued ones of the music of George Gershwin and Hoagy Carmichael to accompany a candlelight dinner.