Customer Reviews
The Essence of Cool - By: , 13 Jan 2003 
Henry Mancini had been kicking around Universal for six years. Most of his years there were a studyin obscurity, the one exception being his scoring of "Touch of Evil" for Orson Welles. So the studio gave him his two week walking papers. Mancini, being Mancini, decided on one of his last days there to go get a free haircut at the studio barber shop. He & the fella next to him got to chatting & hit it off. They had a lotin common. So that newly promoted director, Blake Edwards, says to Mancini, "Hey, how would you like to do this television show for me? It's called "Peter Gunn"......
What followed was decades of film magic, & a collaboration that was the stuff dreams, & great films, were made of. Mancini's West Coast Jazz score for Peter Gunn was his defining moment. It is a masterpiece of mood & atmosphere & it's orchestral jazz score would have an impact for decades to come. When listening to this, you ARE Peter Gunn. From the famous opening salvo of music & imagry, Peter Gunn, both the show & Mancini's score, were, & are, the essence of cool.
You get sixteen wonderful tracks on this double Grammy winner as you cruise along with the hip detective, the sounds of the most innovative score ever written for televisionin the background. Sometimes we're walkingin a room & smell the cordite still fresh & lingering, & we better be careful (Fallout). Other times we're just hanging out with an old pal, trying to figure a way out of this jam (Session at Pete's Pad). Sometimes we're headed to our favorite jazz club, "Mother's", for a night out with our girlfriend Edie (The Brothers Go to Mother's).
There are also those times, late at night, when things are all wrapped up, & Mother herself hands us the keys so we & Edie can make a little time for romance (the lush Dreamsville). Mancini would make a career out of ambiance & Peter Gunn was the impetus for all that was to come. This is an absolute must have for any serious collector. The best thing about picking this one up, besides the great music, is that somehow, just by owning it, we are just a little bit cooler.....
