One of the best kept secrets in film music is out! World premiere release of never-used Michael Small score for highly-praised, then-timely thriller directed by James Bridges, starring Jane Fonda, Michael Douglas, Jack Lemmon. Tense tale of nuclear plant disaster played incredibly well without any dramatic scoring, but original intent was to have Small add suspense, excitement to grim & eerie proceedings. Small offers terse ideas, keeps pace with pending disaster, then unleashes sensational action cue with "Meltdown!" sequence. While multi-track elements have vanished, Sony fortunately vaulted mono safety copies of entire sessions. Engineering slates and paperwork allowed us to recreate Small's original picture intent as well. Also included is "bonus" section of Small's original source music, used for various TV bumpers (Fonda & Douglas are TV reporters). Michael Small conducts. Intrada Special Collection release limited to 1000 copies!
Keyboardist Uri Caine has previously explored the music of Bach, Mozart, Wagner, and Beethoven, so it is hardly surprising that he continues to use classical composers as a source of inspiration for his improvisations. This outing draws on excerpts from Giuseppe Verdi's opera Otello, with the pianist incorporating his usual wild arrangements. Caine is obviously very familiar with the music, but willing to take chances, as in his playful setting of "Fire Song" and a klezmer-like setting of "Drinking Song."