and soundtracks, generally

lately, i've been deliberately gorging on jazz and instrumental music in hopes of pulling myself at least halfway out of a riff rut i've been in when it comes to my relationship with the guitar. when i say 'riff,' by the way, i'm referring to repeated, predominantly single note figures that tend to be rigid in their relationship to a song's beat -- one of the essential building blocks in rock and pop music.

anyways, i loaded up "jazz impressions of a boy named charlie brown" on my ipod today, and was struck, as i always am, by its pensive, understated elegance. i find it impossible to think about either charlie brown or its soundtrack alone without thinking about the other ... so rooted are they both in fostering a very particular mood and a particular mind-set.

it got me to thinking: what other soundtracks are just as indelible from the movies / tv shows they accompany?

lalo schifrin's soundtrack to 'dirty harry' comes to mind ... particularly the pounding, fuzzed-out bass and how it communicates an unstoppable calamity, and the shivering, ghostly vocal lines, so quintessential in a decade where so many movies addressed the supernatural, but which also serve as a quietly-menacing reminder of humans' capacity for violence.

not too big a leap from there: ennio morricone's soundtracks to the spaghetti westerns, with vocals coming on like the exhortations of the Furies, and echo effects stretching the soundscape into the realm of the epic.

finally, what about Harold Faltermeyer's soundtrack to 'fletch'? fitting and expanding the movie's theme, it's quirky to the point of goofiness in parts, but there's times when the bass dips real low and imparts a sense of the forboding, and when the drums strike with the intensity of gun shots.