Diana Krall, N’Sync’s Joey Fatone, Bobby Caldwell and more
headline the Commotion Records soundtrack to The Cooler
with extended selections from the score by composer and trumpeter Mark Isham.

(New York/October 8, 2003) The Shangri-La is the last of the old-school Las Vegas casinos, where hopes and dreams ride on a roll of the dice, and love is the only saving grace for desperate people who've been dealt a hand from the bottom of the deck...

Wayne Kramer's directorial debut The Cooler, due out on November 19th in New York and Los Angeles (and on December 19th nationwide) through Lions Gate Films, stars William H. Macy, Maria Bello, and Alec Baldwin. The Cooler is a cool, gritty, tense and at times even hilarious drama set against the backdrop of Sin City and the Shangri-La. The film's soundtrack will be the rollout release for Commotion Records, a brand new label.

Mark Isham is the Academy Award®-nominated and Grammy Award®-winning composer behind the music of such acclaimed films as A River Runs Through It; Romeo Is Bleeding, Quiz Show and Moonlight Mile. One of the first pictures for which he wrote and performed the score was The Times of Harvey Milk, winner of the 1984 Academy Award® for Best Feature Documentary. For The Cooler, Isham had several distinctively romantic moods in mind for the music. “This is a score that embraces the classic sound of swing that personified old world Vegas,” he says, “and I wanted to mix that with musical themes that reflect the warm and intimate relationship between the main characters.”

An intimate, Vegas-style lounge feel courses through the vocal performances on the soundtrack, mirroring the classy sophistication and style of the film. Diana Krall renders a steamy rendition of the jazz standard “I'll String Along With You,” while Bobby Caldwell channels the spirit of Frank Sinatra on the casino classic “Luck Be A Lady.” Actor Paul Sorvino hits an ironic vein, so to speak, in “Getting To Be A Habit With Me”—in the film, he plays Buddy Stafford, a strung-out lounge singer whose addiction to heroin puts him at Shelly's mercy. Joey Fatone (from 'N Sync) plays Johnny Capella, the young upstart who steals Buddy's gig with his performance of “Can I Steal A Little Love.” And no story of the Vegas nightclub and casino scene would be complete without “My Funny Valentine,” delivered with smoldering cool by up-and-coming jazz siren Tierney Sutton.

The Cooler soundtrack CD was released on November 11, 2003 on Commotion Records in partnership with KOCH Entertainment.