Jazz For The Screen ★ Leith Stevens (III)

Leith Stevens

"Jazz in the Movies" Collection

The Interns

Hell To Eternity

Late in the 1950s and early in the 1960s, jazz ceased to be merely background music in movie theaters and became the dramatic pulse of urban, wartime, and psychologically charged narratives.

For this new chapter of Jazz For The Screen, we once again turn to the music of the distinguished film and television composer Leith Stevens, a child prodigy who was already performing professionally at the age of 11, accompanying vocalists in the Kansas City area, and who made his debut as an orchestra leader at 16.

For this third installment, we delve into a compilation that brings together on a single disc two original soundtracks from the early 1960s: The Interns (1962) and Hell To Eternity (1960).

The great appeal of this album lies not only in the compositions, but also in its extraordinary roster of performers. The sessions brought together some of Hollywood's finest studio musicians and West Coast jazz luminaries, including Pete Candoli, Milt Bernhart, Bob Enevoldsen, Ted Nash, Lou Levy, Barney Kessel, Joe Mondragon, and Shelly Manne, among others. The result is a work that moves between exuberant swing, sophisticated cool jazz, and passages of high dramatic tension, demonstrating how a first-rate roster of jazz musicians could elevate any motion picture production.

The Interns follows the professional and personal lives of a group of young medical interns at a busy urban hospital during their first year of training. Throughout the year, the interns must face complex ethical dilemmas, personal anguish, furtive romances, and the extreme pressures of the medical profession. The soundtrack perfectly reflects this emotional roller coaster, alternating festive moments and urban jazz with tense passages accompanying emergencies in the operating room.

Hell To Eternity tells the remarkable true story of Guy Gabaldon, a young American of Hispanic descent who was adopted, before World War II, by a family of Japanese immigrants in Los Angeles. When war breaks out in the Pacific, Gabaldon enlists in the Marines and is sent to the bloody Battle of Saipan. Drawing on his command of the Japanese language and his understanding of Japanese culture, he accomplishes a legendary feat: persuading more than a thousand Japanese soldiers and civilians to surrender, thereby preventing a massacre. Leith Stevens' score uses jazz and martial orchestration to underscore the tension of combat, the clash of cultures, and the protagonist's psychological drama.

The Interns

Music by Leith Stevens and Stu Phillips

(Originally issued on Colpix SCP-427)

1 - Plasma, Scotch And?

 (Leith Stevens)

2 - Toss Me A Scalpel

(Leith Stevens)

3 - I'm Inhibited

(Leith Stevens)

4 - Lovely Lora

(Leith Stevens)

5 - Doctor, Doctor!

(Stu Phillips)

6 - Sugar Bush Cha Cha

(Leith Stevens)

7 - Wild Party

(Stu Phillips)

8 - Yah, Yah, Yah

(Leith Stevens)

9 - Intern Fever

(Stu Phillips)

10 - Pitcher Of Martinis

(Leith Stevens)

11 - Intern Bash

(Stu Phillips)

12 - Happy New Year

(Leith Stevens)

Leith Stevens and his Orchestra including jazz soloists:

Conrad Gozzo, Pete Candoli (rumpets); Milt Bernhart (trombone);

Bob Enevoldsen (valve trombone);

Ted Nash (alto sax); Ronny Lang (flute, alto sax);

Gene Cipriano (tenor sax); Barney Kessel (guitar). 

Organ, piano, vibes, bass and drums (unidentified).

Recorded in Hollywood, California, 1962

Hell To Eternity

Music by Leith Stevens

(Originally issued on Warwick W 2030)

13 - Iron Petticoat

14 - Bright Boot

15 - Last Leave

16 - Hey, Honey, Go! Go! Go!

17 - Here, Chick Chick Chick

18 - Two Down And One To Go

19 - Three Quarts

20 - On the Double

21 - This Is The Place

22 - Famika

23 - Petes Theme

24 - Little Girl

(All compositions by Leith Stevens)

Orchestra conducted by Leith Stevens, including jazz soloists: 

Conrad Gozzo, Cappy Lewis, Pete Candoli (trumpets); Milt Bernhart (trombone);

Ted Nash (alto sax); Heinie Beau (clarinet, alto sax); Plas Johnson (tenor sax);

Lou Levy (piano); Joe Mondragon (bass); Shelly Manne (drums).

String ensemble (unidentified).

Recorded in Hollywood, California, 1960