Henry Mancini & His Orchestra: Uniquely Mancini

Mancini’s recordings are another collection I maintain–at last count, I had over 60 album titles in my collection. Even more interesting is to finally see the films to which he wrote soundtracks, and see how the music was used in the film to underscore action or set a mood. In addition to soundtrack albums, he had numerous theme albums as well. His early RCA contract specified that he make three albums per year, so recordings from the 60s are plentiful. (And that was a lot of work! If he had two films appear that year, he would not only have to score the music for the film, he also had to write two- to three-minute adaptions of the same music for his RCA albums, and then if the third was a theme album, he had to arrange and sometimes write music for those as well!) Many have heard his orchestral side thanks to the film music, but some of his theme albums were jazz. In fact, his RCA debut, the soundtrack from the TV series “Peter Gunn”, was a jazz album, which sold over a million copies! It is hard to pick a favorite, but one that I listen to the most is Uniquely Mancini, which is one of those big-band jazz recordings. The band swings hard on this one, and like his other jazz albums, the musicians are all of the top west coast jazz players. The arrangements are unique, and you have to hear his swingin’ original song, “Bonzai Pipeline”, that probably swings harder than anything else he’s ever recorded.