siLLy puPPy HENRY MANCINI was really at the peak of his career in 1964 when he wrote the soundtrack for THE PINK PANTHER. He had just won countless awards for his other movie soundtrack scores such as “Breakfast At Tiffany's.” MANCINI will forever be known for his vast contributions to 20th century film music but if i had to pick one single track that sums it all up it would have to be “THE PINK PANTHER theme” which has that super sexy swinging 60s jazz meets lounge exotica groove that screams out “What's New Pussycat” even more than Burt Bacharach. The PINK PATHER theme in tandem with the animated character that graced the opening credits took on a symbiotic life of their own creating a cultural icon that would go on to permeate popular culture with countless animated series and other commercial endeavors. Although I have to admit I fell for the theme track by watching those cute little short cartoons as a kid instead of watching the film which I find oK but not outstanding, I have to admit that THE PINK PANTHER theme was probably one of those early introductions to jazz music that led to a deeper appreciation as I got older.

I would imagine that virtually everyone on the planet has heard the main theme save the rare uncontacted rainforest tribe but what about the rest of the soundtrack score? I have to admit that I have only discovered the rest of the music on this album recently and although this was the time when the music on the soundtrack actually appeared in the movie, it has been quite a while since I have seen the movie that revolves around a giant pink diamond that appears to have a panther in the middle. After listening to this for a while lately and listening more attentively to the music itself without the visual distractions, I must say that I find this a very worthy listen on its own out of the context of the movie in which it appears. It is quite true that the theme song steals the show for it is by far the best song to appear on this roster but it is only because of its absolute magnanimous stature of burrowing into your soul and perfectly representing an era gone-by in a golden age of cinematic history.

Although initially disappointed that no other tracks are as outstanding as the title track, after a few listens it is more obvious that the majority of the other tracks are quite brilliant as well. MANCINI was always known for his swinging lounge and exotic music and he delivers all of that on here quite well. The music is quite diverse ranging from tango inspired numbers like “It Had Better Be Tonight” to 50s rock n' roll in “The Tiber Twist.” Despite influences being varied the tracks have a swinging jazz finish to them. The slow ballads and piano tracks that bring one instantly to some exotic lounge scene of the early 60s are probably my least favorites here but they are effective in how they evoke a certain time and place. I get more excited with the more energetic tracks such as the Latin cha cha cha tinged track “Something For Sellers” and the ragtime meets oom pah polka track “Shades Of Sennett.” Overall this is a satisfying soundtrack that is much more than the ever so addictive theme track and one worthy of jazzy lounge exotica fans to discover beyond the theme song.

js Henry Mancini was one of the most talented composers and orchestral arrangers during the 60s, and his soundtrack work often gave him much more of a chance to show off his creativity than his pop and easy listening albums. His soundtrack to “Experiment in Terror” is no exception as it is loaded with little gems that have that “Mancini touch”. The title cut set a standard for spooky theme songs with its lonely slow ride cymbal backed by a muted guitar riff and topped with a noire melody painstakingly plucked by hand on the piano strings. Halfway through the song a mass of dizzyingly high strings swoop in sounding like something from Hitchcock, this cut has been used as the theme for many of those ‘midnight movie’ type shows.

The twist dance craze had swept the world in the early 60s, so elsewhere on “Experiment” you get several swingin twists done up in more of an exotica style than real rock-n-roll, plus swanky lounge tunes, some interesting incidental music and unfortunately, a couple of unbearably corny tracks including one called “Good Old Days”. Of the incidental music, “Nancy” is an excellent track featuring soft atonal piano passages that sound like a lounge version of Boulez’ serial music. All of the twists and other tunes on here are extra groovy and all are special enough to have shown up on various ‘swingin bachelor pad’ type compilations over the years. If you like Mancicni or 60s exotica in general, you will want to get this. The one major drawback to this record is its brevity, the music is high quality, but you don’t get a lot of it.

js After the disappointing “Symphonic Soul”, Henry Mancini returned the following year with the far more jazzy/funky “Cop Show Themes” featuring blistering modern big band tracks topped with plenty of virtuoso solos. These tracks are of course based on well-known 70s cop show themes, which when stretched out into full songs make for great jazz workouts. Mancini stays close to the original orchestrations on most, (in fact, some these TV themes are his tunes and arrangements to begin with), but modifies “The Rockford Files” to be less Americana country and more funky mod-pseudo classical. Throughout this album Chris Mancini adds nice subtle touches on the Arp for a slight exotic flavor. This is one of Mancini’s best albums and compares well to Quincy Jones funky jazz noir cop themes and Don Ellis’ exotica flavored big band albums, in fact “The Cop Show Themes” makes a great companion to Ellis’ progressive big band pop masterpiece, “Connections”.

Some album highlights include “Streets of San Francisco” where funk driven horn sections alternate with high speed bop rides featuring excellent rapid fire Fender Rhodes solos from Artie Kane, and “S.W.A.T.” which opens with wah-wah guitar and a sly nod to Isaac Hayes before settling into a funky groove topped with a building horn melody. Back in the late 80s a very creative rap group (forget their name) cut this song up and used the building horns to re-create this song’s tense atmosphere. Those two songs are not the only good cuts on here, almost the entire album smokes. Mancini’s music is usually of high quality, but rarely is it this funky and energetic. Highly recommended for fans of that special genre known as “crime jazz”.

js During the 60s the fine art of creative orchestration reached new heights. Originally inspired by impressionist composers like Debussy and big band innovators like Ellington, progressive big band arrangers like Don Ellis and Gil Evans, as well as exotica/easy listening composers such as Les Baxter and Henry Mancini, were driven to even more creative tones and colors when the new fangled world of stereo effects opened up even more possibilities. These influences from Mancini and the others then passed on to the world of RnB in the 70s as artists such as Isaac Hayes, Herbie Hancock and EW&F continued to make music in which creative orchestrations played a big part. For Mancini to re-orchestrate some 70s RnB that he may have helped inspire seems like a natural fit, but unfortunately his “Symphonic Soul” album does not live up to expectations. I would have expected Mancini to have a little more cool than this, but his feel for jazzy funk and RnB is disappointingly clumsy.

Mancini certainly picked some great tunes for this endeavor. Herbie’s original “Butterfly” is a modern space lounge masterpiece, and EW&F’s “Sun Goddess” is RnB that aspires to be futuristic progressive big band. The “Sun Goddess” cover is possibly one of the most successful on here with the funky keyboard playing of Joe Sample helping out quite a bit, but the cover of “Butterfly” does nothing new for the tune, and instead seems to drag it down. The only interesting part on this one is Mancini’s ability to re-create Herbie’s string synthesizer sound with his ‘real’ string arrangement. The rest of the tunes on this album can be worse. The title “Symphonic Soul” conjures up cool images of some of the best work by Isaac Hayes and Barry White, but instead, on here ‘symphonic’ often means cheezy classical imitations and ‘soul’ means disco. The cover of AWB’s jazz-funk classic “Pick up the Pieces” probably has kitsch value for collectors of odd instrumental covers, but Manicini’s clumsy strings doubling the bass line kill the groove on this one.

Although Mancini has a hard time picking up the 70s funk vibe, some of the best cuts on here take place on tunes like “Slow Hot Wind” where Mancini’s old school easy listening string swoops make for an interesting and odd mix with the loungey funk rhythms. This album has some good moments, but overall Mancini seems to be out of his element, which is really kind of surprising.

js There is a lot of confusion surrounding Henry Mancini’s first two albums, at first glance it would seem the second album was a re-issue of the first, but this is not the case. Although Mancini was already well-known for his contributions to popular soundtracks like “Peter Gunn”, he didn’t release his first album until 1957. That album, “Driftwood and Dreams”, was a well received exotica masterpiece, but it was recorded in mono just a year or two ahead of the advent of stereo. In 1959 Mancini decided to gather the same musicians and play the same tunes with the same arrangements, but this time in stereo. The resultant album, “The Versatile Henry Mancini” is so similar to “Driftwood” that for years people have assumed it was just a stereo re-mix of the original album, not an entirely new performance. To add to all this you can now purchase both of these early albums on one CD called confusingly enough, “The Versatile Henry Mancini” ..again. All that aside, this review is written using a near pristine vinyl LP copy of “The Versatile Henry Mancini” (1959) that was found in a thrift store for a bargain.

This is probably one of the finest exotica albums you will find outside of Les Baxter’s early albums. This is exotica without all the extra cute kitsch nonsense; no fake bird calls, relentless bell trees or canned thunder in the background, just really nice arrangements that come from the west coast cool jazz tradition, but spiced up with wordless vocals and shimmering Hammond organ tones. Mancini is the master of tone color and orchestration and his choice of Hammond organ, accordian, and bass guitar, plus master jazz guitarist Laurindo Almeida and the mysterious soprano vocals of Louie “Lulu” Jean Norman (future singer of the “Star Trek theme) makes for sublime sounds. There is just enough reverb now and again that sometimes this music almost borders on some kind of proto-psychedelia. Lou Maury's thin organ sound that swoops in and out of the mix may remind some of a style that jazzer Larry Young will later use in the 70s when he becomes a psychedelic fusion player. There is no doubt that Brian Wilson was influenced by Mancini’s work when he started his “Pet Sounds” projects. Its interesting to note that despite their square reputation, the easy listening composers were ahead of the rock crowd by almost 15 years (Les Baxter’s first exotica masterpiece came out in 1951) when it came to manipulating sound and using stereo effects to their fullest.

If you like good quality exotica music, or just west coast Polynesian jazz gone Star Trek, you will love this. There are no embarrassing gimmicks or heavy-handed trendy tikisms to be found here, just some really good music that sounds like it came from "another world”.