Elmer Bernstein – Sweet Smell Of Success

In the beginning, they weren't called 'Film Noir'. That term didn't originate until 1946 when a Frenchman coined the phrase as a convenient catchall reference for American low budget hard-boiled crime and detective B-movies shot during the austere '40s and early '50s. It was the look of Film Noir movies as much as their down beat storylines, which made for compulsive viewing. Shot in black and white, these films were dark and claustrophobic and relied upon deep shadows, shards of light and surreal angle shots to establish the appropriate mood. Other much used devices included conspiratorial voiceover narrators and dream-like flashbacks.

Long before "La La Land" or "Birdman" Jazz was a perfect way to underscore and even enhance the action on the silver screen - not only in Hollywood, but all the way across Europe, too. Some of the best and most influential Original Jazz Soundtracks from the 1950s and early 1960s are documented in this unique 10 CD collection. Beginning with Miles Davis' iconic soundtrack to Louis Malle's "Ascenseur pour l'échafaud", whose leading actress Jeanne Moreau can be seen with the trumpeter on the cover of our box set, and leading all the way to Henry Mancini's score to Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil". In between you will enjoy American Jazz greats like Art Blakey, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Gerry Mulligan, and The Modern Jazz Quartet, but also legendary Polish composer Krzysztof Komeda with the score to one of Roman Polanski's first films "Knife In The Water", British Jazz-scores by Dizzy Reece and Johnny Dankworth, or soundtracks by French Jazz greats from Barney Wilen to Martial Solal.