Impact

Buddy Morrow and a jazz orchestra cut this LP in the wake of Henry Mancini's huge success with the soundtrack to Peter Gunn, the idea being to do the same thing with similar source material. The dozen tracks (including the Peter Gunn main title theme) are all derived from the title music to popular television shows of the day and are given what can be called a light jazz treatment. Some of the material, such as George Duning and Ned Washington's theme from The Naked City and, even more so, "Riff Blues," the main title music to the Mike Hammer series starring Darren McGavin, lends itself to this treatment; whereas the Dimitri Tiomkin/Ned Washington theme from Rawhide does not (and the overdubbed cattle mooing doesn't help. There are also some genuinely peculiar and enjoyable oddities here, such as Morrow's interpretation of "Parade of the Chessmen," the theme from Racket Squad, authored by Joseph Mullendore. It's a pop instrumental that come to life in its middle section when the winds take over for a few bars, followed by the saxes. Count Basie's title theme from M-Squad becomes the basis for a great sax and trumpet showcase. Perhaps the biggest surprise is the Sea Hunt theme by Ray Llewelyn, which, despite some silly wave noises at its opening, becomes a hot, moody sax workout as well as showing off some dense string passages that anticipate the music of John Barry for the James Bond movies. The forgotten series represented here also offers some rewards to the listener: J. Michael Hennagin's music for the western Black Saddle allows the horns to sink their teeth into a delicious folk-like riff. "Waterfront" by Alexander Laszlo has a nice little sax break. And the Peter Gunn theme gets a treatment very different from Henry Mancini's own, a repetitive baritone sax part with soaring and banking brass and tenor looping overhead. The remastering emphasizes the glittering "Living Stereo" separation of the original release, and one only wishes that the producers could have included the names of the musicians involved beyond Buddy Morrow, with perhaps some annotation. Reissued on CD in 1998 through Spanish RCA/Victor along with its follow-up, Double Impact. ~ Bruce Eder|