Jazz For The Screen ★ Stanley Wilson and Skip Martin

"Jazz in the Movies" Collection

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Stanley Wilson 

The Music From "M Squad"

and

Skip Martin

The Music "Mike Hammer"

Mike Spillane's Mike Hammer stories were the 10-minute egg of hard-boiled crime fiction. The NBC television series, with Darren McGavin just a little too clean-cut as the tec, pulled a fair few punches, but the theme music didn't. Skip Martin's soundtrack packed a punch like a lead sap. M Squad was a Lee Marvin vehicle, usually driven at reckless speed, and you wouldn't have known where to put your money in a catchweight between Hammer and Lt. Frank Ballinger. There are some pretty good eggs in the studio bands here. The M Squad Theme was by Basie, of course, and a good few of the arrangements and themes by Benny Carter (nice alto playing, too), though Stanley Wilson took care of the rest with snap-brim professionalism.

This is the work that kept many a jazz guy solvent during the later 1950s and 1960s when the big bands weren't touring to any great extent and pop was beginning to hustle the market. It's inch-perfect, by-the-book arranging and playing, but the material is raw enough to give these cues a raw immediacy. Only a cynic draws a hard line between commercial music and art. If these were day-job gigs for West Coast musicians, no one got their cigar out till the shift was done. Hammer Blow sums it up perfectly. *Brian Morton (Jazz Journal)*

A few months ago, I stumbled across some very cool soundtracks from '60s Juvenile Delinquent movies such as College Confidential and Crime in the Streets that had guys like Maynard Ferguson and Conte Candoli in the studios delivering some wonderfully moody and hip sounds. The Spanish reissue label Fresh Sound Records just put out a couple more of these delights, and they're even better!

The Music from M Squad had the show starring Lee Marvin (or is it James Coburn? Were they twins?) backed by an orchestra conducted by Stanley Wilson performing tunes penned by Count Basie, Johnny Williams and Benny Carter. Carter plays alto here as well, along with Don Fagerquist (trumpet), Rosolino (trombone) and Alvin Stoller (drums) and Dick Nash (trombone) included in the studio orchestra. You're gonna LOVE the "M Squad Theme", and "The Juke Box" isn't too far behind. The music from Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer is arranged and conducted by Skip Martin, and boasts a reed section of Bud Shank, Paul Horn, Gus Bivona, Ted Nash and Bob Cooper as well as a rhythm section of Larry Bunker (drums), Red Mitchell (bass), Jimmy Rowles (piano) and Barney Kessel (guitar). The band swings as crisply and as hard as anything that Woody Herman was doing at the time, and the solos, while short and to the point, snap like snow peas. You can feel the asphalt under your feet on "Lenox Avenue Strut" while the brew of Folgers is sniffed on "Coffee House". When did TV lose its musical edge? *George W. Harris (jazzweekly.com)*

Music from "M Squad"

Stanley Wilson

(Originally issued on RCA Victor LSP-2062)

1 - M Squad Theme

(Count Basie)

2 - The Chase

(Johnny Williams)

3 - The Search

(Benny Carter)

4 - Phantom Raiders

(Benny Carter)

5 - Lonely Beat

(Stanley Wilson)

6 - The Juke Box

(Benny Carter)

7 - The Mugger

(Benny Carter)

8 - The Discovery

(Johnny Williams)

9 - The Late Spot

(Stanley Wilson)

10 - The Cha-Cha Club

(Stanley Wilson)

11 - A Lady Sings The Blues

(Stanley Wilson, Sonny Burke)

12 - The End

(Johnny Williams)

Stanley Wilson (conductor)

#1, #2, #5, #9, to #12:

Ray Linn, Don Fagerquist, Maurie Harris (trumpets);

Joe Howard, Pete Carpenter, Dick Nash (trombones);

George Roberts (bass trombone); Benny Carter (alto sax);

John T. Williams (piano); Red Mitchell (bass);

Alvin Stoller (drums); Larry Bunker (bongos [#10]); 

Recorded at RCA Victor Studios, Hollywood, California, March 16 and 20, 1959

#3, #4, #6 to #8:

Frank Beach, Don Fagerquist, Maurie Harris (trumpets); 

Milt Bernhart, Frank Rosolino, Pete Carpenter (trombones);

George Roberts (bass trombone); Benny Carter (alto sax);

John T. Williams (piano); Joe Mondragon (bass); Alvin Stoller (drums).

Recorded at RCA Victor Studios, Hollywood, California, March 18, 1959

Music from "Mike Hammer"

Skip Martin

(Originally issued on RCA Victor LSP-2140)

13 - Riff Blues (Theme)

14 - Corn Pone Woman 

15 - Coffee House 

16 - Bad Guys 

17 - Black Night 

18 - Back Home 

19 - Night Crowd 

20 - Summer Mood 

21 - Like Mike 

22 - Morning After

23 - Lenox Avenue Strut

24 - Hammer Blow 

(All compositions by Skip Martin)

Lloyd "Skip" Martin (conductor)

#13, #14, #16, #18:

Conrad Gozzo, Don Fagerquist, Dale McMickle, Frank Beach (trumpets);

Dick Nash, Frank Rosolino, Dick Noel, Tommy Pederson (trombones);

Bud Shank, Paul Horn (alto sax, flute); Gus Bivona (clarinet, tenor sax);

Bob Cooper (tenor sax); Chuck Gentry (baritone sax); Jimmy Rowles (piano);

Barney Kessel (guitar); Red Mitchell (bass); Irv Cottler (drums); Ralph Hansell (tympani).

Recorded at RCA Victor Studios, Hollywood, California, September 21, 1959

#19, #20, #22, #24:

Pete Candoli, Don Fagerquist, Frank Beach (trumpets);

Dick Nash, Frank Rosolino, Dick Noel, Tommy Pederson (trombones);

Bud Shank, Ted Nash (alto saxes); Gus Bivona (clarinet, tenor sax);

Bob Cooper (tenor sax); Barney Kessel (guitar); Jimmy Rowles (piano);

Red Mitchell (bass); Larry Bunker (drums); Melbourne Pedesky (tympani).

Recorded at RCA Victor Studios, Hollywood, California, September 22, 1959

#15, #17, #21, #23:

Frank Beach (trumpet), Joe Howard (trombone), Paul Horn (alto sax),

Bob Cooper (tenor sax), Chuck Gentry (baritone sax), Richard Cornell (vibes),

Barney Kessel (guitar), Jimmy Rowles (piano), Red Mitchel (bass), Irv Cottler (drums).

Recorded at RCA Victor Studios, Hollywood, California, September 23, 1959