Jazz at the Movies

The undeniable thrill of Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and the RKO Radio Studio Orchestra as they waltz through the Gershwin great "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off"; the brooding intensity of Miles Davis and his "Au bar du petit bac" from the famous 1958 French masterpiece Ascenseur pour l'echafaud; the brassy swing of Henry Mancini and the instantly recognizable strains of "The Pink Panther Theme." It's Jazz at the Movies — proof-positive that without the tone-setting power of that great American music, the silver screen just wouldn't be the same. Jazz aficionado Clint Eastwood puts his directorial weight behind a handful of classics, in Next Steps.

Chet Baker may have recorded "Let's Get Lost" decades before Bruce Weber filmed his stunning Baker documentary, but the signature tune's haunting sensitivity makes it just right for a film about the troubled trumpeter. In Lady Sings the Blues, Diana Ross portrayed another jazz legend, Billie Holiday, scoring an Oscar® nomination for her movie debut, and reinterpreting Holiday classics like "Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be)" for a whole new generation of listeners. And in Clint Eastwood's The Bridges of Madison County we get to hear Johnny Hartman and Dinah Washington anew. From film noir to Bronson vigilante thriller, jazz finds its niche, in Deep Cuts.

If movie music is all about atmosphere, what better music to set the stage than jazz? With tracks like the super suave "The Windmills of Your Mind," Michel Legrand's score for The Thomas Crown Affair perfects the film's debonair flair, while Herbie Hancock's "Party People" adds extra layers of tension to the vigilante saga, Death Wish. Jazzman and soundtrack master Lalo Schifrin throws some Southern sass into "Just a Closer Walk With Thee," from his score for Cool Hand Luke, and Stan Kenton takes on one of the great movie melodies, with a vocal version of the noir standard "Laura."

If ever two art forms were meant for each other, it's jazz and the cinema, both uniquely expressive, both capable of conveying the lives we live from their grandest expanses to their most quietly intimate moments. It's why jazz has been part of the movies since the movies made sound, why some of the all-time great jazz musicians have written now classic scores — Duke Ellington and his famous "Main Title" from Anatomy of a Murder — and why some of the all-time great movie composers have turned to jazz and made their soundtracks integral parts of the movies they grace. And it's why we bring you Jazz at the Movies, one truly Essential playlist jam-packed with everything from the smoky night-time groove of Dexter Gordon's "'Round Midnight" to the new-school swing of Harry Connick, Jr.'s "A Wink and a Smile."