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The saxophone in movie soundtracks

113K views 151 replies 87 participants last post by  sheenharlow 
#1 ·
First, I did use the search function but couldn't find a thread to match it. The question is:

"What movies contain soundtracks with the saxophone as solo or lead instrument?"

Just enter one movie per post along with any additional information pertaining to the movie (composer, director, year, nationality). Fine to include Bird, Round Midnight, etc. but I am actually more curious about others. I know a few, only a few, so please help me out.

I will start:

Betty Blue (37.2˚ Le Matin), score by Gabriel Yared, directed by Jean-Jacques Beneix (French), from 1986. 3-hours long in the uncut version; one hour shorter after the censors were done. Beautiful score with the sax in the foreground. One of my favorite soundtracks.

Your turn, please!
 
#27 ·
I watched "The Fabulous Baker Boys" last night. Some nice sax in the soundtrack, so I paid attention to the credits afterwards. It was Ernie Watts.

By the way, that movie comes closer to getting it right about the life of lounge musicians than any other I've seen. Beau Bridges was brilliant.
 
#28 ·
Al Stevens said:
I watched "The Fabulous Baker Boys" last night. Some nice sax in the soundtrack, so I paid attention to the credits afterwards. It was Ernie Watts.

By the way, that movie comes closer to getting it right about the life of lounge musicians than any other I've seen. Beau Bridges was brilliant.
I totally agree (except for the part about lounge musicians, which I am not qualified to speak of being an amateur sax player). I have the soundtrack on CD. Ernie Watts, wow, never occured to me to look. BTW, the mere thought Michelle Pfeiffer singing "My Funny Valentine" is comical. The big surprise is that it actually works pretty well.
 
#32 ·
"Kansas City" by Robert Altman 1996. Carter, Redman ..............
"Volver" by Pedro Almodóvar 2006. Andy Findon.
 
#34 ·
The Hustler

Stolen from nitrosax (thanks) in another thread:

A little trivia you may or may not know about Phil Woods...Ever seen the movie THE HUSTLER with Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason(One of my all time favorite movies by the way...REAL acting and a REAL plot before all this CG ****e...)...Phil Woods plays ALL the stuff on that movie's soundtrack and it's the most beautiful Phil Woods alto you've ever heard...it's soo gritty and lean and focused and I think it captures the whole essence of Phil's sound..
 
#35 · (Edited)
Everyone remembers Tony Curtis playing a sax player in "Some Like it Hot," but who remembers "The Rat Race" (a fair to middling film to watch on cable at 4 a.m. if you're a sax player):

A somewhat uneven but still entertaining comedy-drama, The Rat Race, by director Robert Mulligan, co-stars Tony Curtis and Debbie Reynolds as Peter Hammond, Jr. and Peggy Brown, two performers who meet in New York and are thrown together by their mutual poverty. Peter arrives on a bus from the Midwest with his sax in hand* and high hopes for a career. He gets a one-room walk-up and then meets Peggy, a dancer down on her luck who needs a place to stay. Ever the gentleman, Peter offers her space in his apartment and they string up a modesty curtain to divide their separate domains. But luck is not kind to Peter, right from the beginning. Some pranksters hose him down with cold water on his first trip into the city and he later gets his precious saxophone stolen by a trio of devious musicians/thieves. Peggy offers companionship in the face of difficulties, and before long the platonic relationship has distinct romantic overtones. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide


*He actually arrives with, as I recall, 3 saxes in hand: Mark VI alto, tenor, and bari; the scene in which his axes get stolen will entertain you for sure. Then his girlfriend buys him a new family of Conns. He gets a big gig on a cruise ship -- Yikes!
 
#36 ·
Pink Panther !!! (Tony Coe played on the 1st movie AFAIK)

I believe Anthony Ortega played for a movie from Cassavetes ?). Did not hear it though.

There was a good soundtrack for movie "Lulu on the bridge" by leader /saxophonist from Lounge Lizard (his name escapes me right now)
 
#38 ·
Elmar Kurgpold said:
Check the Lethal Weapon series. Eric Clapton and Michael Kamen did the original music for #1, but if I remember correctly David Sanborn was all over it.
Yeah, I recall noticing the soundtrack while watching as a kid. Sanborn was ALL OVER that. He's SO AWESOME!
MESax said:
That 1992 movie Sneakers with Robert Redford and Sidney Potier. Branford playing sax.
I remember that. Ah, the sweet soprano sound of Branford.
 
#39 ·
CATCHFIRE with Dennis Hopper and Jodie Foster. Weak movie, but features Hopper as a hit man who plays sax to blow off steam (between hits?). There is one interesting feature of the way the movie portrays this: Hopper's character is not supposed to know how to play (he's just acquired a horn somewhere and blows it aimlessly to "relax") and whoever plays sax for him conveys this by playing amazing multiphonics -- so here's a guy completely ignorant of the instrument playing notes (chords!) that you'd have to study for years to play with such consistency. Of course nobody in the audience knows that except for the sax players. . . .

As I recall, there's a culminating scene when Hopper, in a 20th floor (or so) condo, throws the tenor through a huge plate glass window. Pretty spectacular unless you have a weak stomach. . . .
 
#44 ·
David Lynch 'Lost Highway'.

A 'noise jazz' alto player morphs into an auto mechanic. Surreal...
 
#46 ·
Edward Blake's "The Party" featuring Peter Sellers as Hrundi V Baksi. Hilarious film with some excellent music. Plas Johnson plays some great tenor in this film. Actually the band is appearing in the movie, I am not sure if i is really Plas appearing in the film, but it is him playing the music.
 
#47 ·
markVIinNorway said:
"Beverly Hills Cop" has some cool sax in it...I think the tune is called "the heat is on"
Oh yeah, that was by Glenn Frye. I learned that part when I was in high school. If I remember correctly, it was something like this on tenor (I'm doing this from memory, so I could be off some..):

D# F# A G# E

E F# D# A G#

D# F# A G# E

B C# D#

F# G# A
 
#51 ·
Peter Gunn

Not a movie but a TV series, say you? You're half right:

Peter Gunn was a one-shot TV movie revival of the classic detective series (1958-61) created by Blake Edwards. Edwards wrote and directed this pilot for a potential Gunn revival, with Peter Strauss stepping into Craig Stevens' gumshoes as private eye Peter Gunn. Peter Jurasik assumes Herschel Bernardi's old role as Lt. Jacobi, while Barbara Williams takes over for Lola Albright as saloon singer Edie ("Mother's", the night spot where Edie vocalizes, is operated by "special guest star" Pearl Bailey). The film is not updated to the present time, but is set in 1964. Gunn finds himself between gangsters and rogue cops when he agrees to get to the bottom of a mob hit. A lot more verbose than the old, visually dynamic TV series, Peter Gunn (1989) has the saving grace of Henry Mancini's original progressive-jazz theme song and musical score. Blake Edwards' daughter Jennifer is featured as Gunn's ditsy secretary, a character (thankfully) missing from the earlier series. This actually represented Edwards's second attempt to revive the Peter Gunn character in a movie format; he first did so with the 1967 big-screen feature Gunn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
 
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