Friday , March 29 2024

Henry and Monica Mancini – Ultimate Mancini

The great film music composer, conductor and performer Henry Mancini, whom Donald Fagen called the “High Priest of Hollywood Cool,” has now been gone for ten years. In commemoration of this and the 80th anniversary of his birth, this is the Year of Mancini. The U.S. Postal Service will issue a commemorative stamp on April 13, 2004 and a first day issue dedication ceremony will at the Music Center Plaza in downtown Los Angeles. The same day there will be a “Tribute to Henry Mancini” at the new Walt Disney Concert Hall, hosted by Julie Andrews and Senator John Glenn, with performances by Michael Feinstein, Jeanne & James Galway, Quincy Jones, Monica Mancini and John Williams. Wow.

And at the center of all this is a great new recording, due out March 23 on Concord Records, Ultimate Mancini, a rerecording of some of Mancini’s Oscar and Grammy-nominated compositions (72 Grammy nominations, 20 awards; 18 Academy Awards nominations, four Oscars), with his daughter, vocalist Monica Mancini, the Ultimate Mancini Orchestra under the guidance of Patrick Williams, and guest stars including Stevie Wonder, Take 6, and Kenny Rankin.

Saving the best for first, the album opens with Mancini’s ubiquitous “The Pink Panther Theme,” with saxophonist Plas Johnson reprising his classic prowling feline lead from the original, recorded 40 years ago, as well as adding a growling solo in the middle. Adding to the hypercool nocturnal mysterioso mood are Hammond B-3 organist Joey DeFrancesco and vibe-man Gary Burton. DeFrancesco runs wild over the keyboard like a cat on a hot tin roof before the orchestra recapitulates the pungent main theme. Purrrfect.

Similarly bespeaking mystery, sweetened with a kiss of romance, is the orchestral “Charade,” with Latin rhythms and a hint of arabesque in the familiar melody. Stevie Wonder’s sliding, swooping chromatic harmonica presents the touching melody of “Moon River” before Take 6 take over with their flawless jazzy harmonies, against which Stevie riffs with an almost audible smile. It almost made me forget Andy Williams.

Monica does a clean, warm job on the lightly Latin ballad “Moment to Moment” against some dramatic alto work by Tom Scott, that never lapses into melodrama. Scott also rocks a taut, swinging, audacious “Peter Gunn Theme” that reeks of big suits, gun molls, and tough talk. “Dear Heart,” another timeless melody, gets a gentle, classical guitar and strings arrangement behind Monica’s vocal. Michael Lang lends elegant piano to a lovely That’s Life-Victor/Victoria-10 movie medley. A very fine tribute.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1924, Mancini’s flutist father taught him the instrument and a love of music. The family moved to Aliquippa, Pennsylvania where Henry took up the piano, and within a few years became interested in arranging. After graduation from high school in 1942, Mancini enrolled at Juilliard School of Music but his studies were interrupted by the draft in 1943.

Following his release from the Armed Forces in 1946, Mancini joined the Glenn Miller-Ted Beneke Orchestra as a pianist/arranger. There he met the future Mrs. Mancini, Ginny O’Connor, one of the original members of Mel Torme’s “Mel-Tones.”

Mancini moved to Hollywood and joined the Universal-International Studios music department in 1952. During the next six years he contributed to over 100 films, including The Glenn Miller Story (his first Academy Award nomination), The Benny Goodman Story and Orson Welle’s Touch of Evil. Mancini became an independent composer/arranger in 1958 and scored the television series Peter Gunn for writer/producer Blake Edwards, the beginning of a relationship that lasted over thirty years and twenty-six films.

Remaining shows on the Mancini At the Movies Tour are:

FRI 03/05 OH, Zanesville 8:00 pm Secrest Auditorium
SAT 03/06 OH, Tiffin 8:00 pm Ritz Theatre
SUN 03/07 MI, Clinton Township 3:00 pm Macomb Center for the Performing Arts
TUE 03/09 IN, Indianapolis 8:00 pm Pike Performing Arts Center Auditorium
WED 03/10 IL, Chicago 8:00 pm Chicago Theatre
FRI 03/12 IN, Wabash 8:00 pm Ford Theater
SAT 03/13 IL, Joliet 8:00 pm Rialto Square Theatre
SUN 03/14 WI, Madison 7:30 pm Oscar Mayer Theatre
TUE 03/16 WI, Whitewater 7:30 pm Young Auditorium
WED 03/17 WI, Sheboygan 8:00 pm The Stefanie Weill Theatre
FRI 03/26 NY, New York 8:00 pm Carnegie Hall

About Eric Olsen

Career media professional and serial entrepreneur Eric Olsen flung himself into the paranormal world in 2012, creating the America's Most Haunted brand and co-authoring the award-winning America's Most Haunted book, published by Berkley/Penguin in Sept, 2014. Olsen is co-host of the nationally syndicated broadcast and Internet radio talk show After Hours AM; his entertaining and informative America's Most Haunted website and social media outlets are must-reads: Twitter@amhaunted, Facebook.com/amhaunted, Pinterest America's Most Haunted. Olsen is also guitarist/singer for popular and wildly eclectic Cleveland cover band The Props.

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