Despite his
classical
training,
Lalo Schifrin
had worked with
Dizzy Gillespie
and was something of a
jazz
enthusiast. His groundbreaking score for
Don Siegel
's
Dirty Harry
was initially inspired by
Miles Davis
' electronic excursions in
"A Tribute to Jack Johnson"
and
Bitches Brew
. Allowed to follow his musical instincts by veteran director
Siegel
,
Schifrin
orchestrates the score's driving percussion, restless electric bass, and eerie wordless vocals (as pioneered by
Edda Dell'Orso
under the direction of
Ennio Morricone
and his peers in Italy) into an organic mix that could best be described as
acid jazz
some 25 years before that genre began. The music cues for
Clint Eastwood
Harry Callahan
are energetic and exciting, but what kicks the score to a level all its own is
's theme for the serial killer,
Scorpio
, whom
Callahan
tracks through the bulk of the film. Its offbeat fusion combines modern
music in a brilliant manner with
Sally Stevens
' creepy, ethereal vocals overlaying
psychedelic rock
of the time. This is perhaps best exemplified on the CD in the two opening cuts:
"Prologue -- The Swimming Pool"
"Main Title."
The shifting tempos and the sinister, childlike vocals were directly emulated by dozens of Italian
Poliziottechi
Giallo
films of the '70s, and a sterilized incarnation of this style has become the bane of 21st century television scoring, a full three decades after
's seminal work. The only criticisms of the release are aesthetic and specific to the conventions of published film scores. This CD is missing the brilliant 7" edit of
"Scorpio's Theme,"
which admittedly never appears in the film in this form, but which captures the excitement of the score in a three-minute
/
rock
opera. Also, some of the slight source music -- such as the comic
"Harry's Hot Dog"
and the cheesy
"The Strip Club"
-- will benefit the CD most when left off the play list. There is merit in presenting a "complete"
soundtrack
, even in order of appearance within the film; but given that these pieces wreck the mood set by the immediately preceding music, it could be argued that the best place for them is at the tail-end of the recording as bonus tracks. Outside of these misgivings, the primary score is one of the first truly modern action film scores. Less immediate than his popular theme songs for
Mission Impossible
or
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
, the score for
succeeds through
experimental
nerve and ability to draw ideas from current trends to meld them in a way both unique and timeless. Its influence is paramount, heard daily in movies, on television, and in modern
music. ~ JT Lindroos