Synanon - Neal Hefti

 

Zankie

Columbia Pictures Presents A Richard Quine Production

Synanon

Original Sound Track Recording

Music Composed, Arranged and Conducted by Neal Hefti

Producer: Dave Pell

Engineer: "Lanky" Linstrot

Cover Design: Studio Five

Liberty Records LRP-3413

1965

From the back cover: Neal Hefti

As recently as a half-dozen years ago the use of a jazz composer-arranger to do a film underscoring would have made headlines in the music press. It was an implacable theory on the part of the movie-makers that jazz writers might be nice to visit once in awhile, but certainly no one would want to live there.

That attitude has taken an abrupt about-face, however, and one of the men chiefly responsible for the change is Heal Hefti. He, along with men like Henry Mancini and Andre Previn, has shown that the jazz composer is not only technically equipped to handle the problems of film scoring, but that he brings with him a vitality and freshness that adds immeasurably to the picture's impact. He provides more than "background music" – he makes the music an integral part of the action.

Hefti's skill at heightening drama, building tension, and supporting action with out intruding upon the dialog can be heard at its very best in Synanon. Neal has that rare ability to write temptation to try to make the viewer leave the theater saying, "Wow, did you hear that score?"

And one does not have to see the picture to appreciate the irony of "Main Street" or the wistful resignation of "The Wiffenpoof Song" as they are programmed on this album. They tell an eloquent story.

It did, indeed take the film industry a long time to tap the rich lode of music that is to be mined from jazz. But when it did make its move, it went first class. It looked to men like Neal Hefti.

Zankie (Main Title)

The Perfect Beginning

Main Street

Blues For Hopper

Hope

Tonight's The Night

Zankie And Put Your Little Foot

Open House

Put Your Little Foot

Zankie

The Whiffenpoof Song (Written by Minnigerode, Pomeroy, Galloway, Vallee)