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Night Gallery
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Topic: Night Gallery
LRobHubbard
Oscar® Winner
Just finished another good 'companion' volume on television shows... the book in question is ROD SERLING'S NIGHT GALLERY: AN AFTER HOURS TOUR, by Scott Skelton and Jim Benson. More than worth a look if you remember the show -- the reason I mention it here is that there's a substantial mention of the music in the show, by Gil Melle, Robert Prince, Oliver Nelson, Paul Glass, John Lewis and Eddie Sauter.There's a website at http://www.nightgallery.net where the book can be ordered, and some addtional information on the show.
There was mention of looking into the possibility of releasing music from the show; although I have no idea if that proved to be feasible.[Message edited by LRobHubbard on 11-19-2000]
posted 11-18-2000 10:14 PM PT (US) Graham Watt
Oscar® Winner
I wasn't able to access that website, LRob. Anyway, the music in Night Gallery was always splendid: strange how TV in those days was scored so often by jazz musicians in non-jazz mode (Melle, Nelson, Lewis), and how well these gentlemen, so reliant on improvisation in their playing, could produce such tight, dramatically correct works.Go on, LRob: give us just a wee hint as to the Gil Melle comments in the book!
posted 11-19-2000 01:58 PM PT (US) LRobHubbard
Oscar® Winner
I screwed up the URL in the original post; it has been corrected and IS working - sorry about that... as to some of the Melle comments, there's quite a bit of info -- producer Jack Laird was responsible for giving Melle his break into scoring and wanted Melle to score the entire series, bumping Billy Goldenberg who had scored the pilot and who was not happy about it - Melle only did the theme (which he did while working on ANDROMEDA STRAIN). He did provide music for episodes in the second season, but it was utilized more as 'library cues' and tracked into various episodes.As interesting as the Melle comments are, the real treasure are comments about composers such as Paul Glass (who did "Silent Snow, Secret Snow & "Messiah on Mott Street") and Oliver Nelson. As a matter of fact, there's substantial attention paid toward the music, which makes it all the more valuable (how many people even remember these guys now?)
posted 11-19-2000 04:53 PM PT (US) Lou Goldberg
Oscar® Winner
Glass scored Bunny Lake is Missing for Preminger and that LP is a favorite of mine--very modern sound. Didn't Oliver Nelson score Zigzag? I remember seeing that LP around in the old days too.NP: When A Woman Ascends the Stairs (Toshiro Mayuzumi)
[Message edited by Lou Goldberg on 11-22-2000]
posted 11-21-2000 11:22 PM PT (US) Graham Watt
Oscar® Winner
That's right Lou, Oliver Nelson did Zigzag (False Witness in the UK), and it has some wonderful bits in it. Nelson really knew how to use a big band jazz sound to generate all kinds of emotions. Some of that brass ensemble playing is absolutely electric.I was listening to the nightly jazz programme yesterday on the radio, and Oliver Nelson appeared on sax from the early 60s, playing along with trombonist JJ Johnson (another jazzman who did sublime things for films and TV). A large part of the programme was taken up with a suite that JJ wrote many years ago for Dizzy Gillespie (Lalo Schifrin did other suites for Gillespie around the same time)), and it was exciting to hear that very dramatic, dense brass sound that both Oliver Nelson and JJ Johnson would later use for film and TV scores.
And some of Gil Melle's scores followed that same path. There are even hints of it in Night Gallery.
Hey, everybody, please don't underestimate the contributions of jazzmen to film scores (I know nobody was)! I'd still like to know why it is that so many jazz players/composers managed to hit the perfect dramatic buttons when film music is a million miles removed from free improvisation.
posted 11-24-2000 12:36 PM PT (US) Old Infopop Software by UBB