The Best Music in Film

John Surman

(Jazz musician. Composed the music for Chimère and Respiro)

S&S: What is your favourite film soundtrack music and why do you like it so much?
"I´m writing as someone who has a particular interest in jazz and thus am fascinated by the way that this area of the music has been used in the cinema. From the 50s through to the 70s and beyond, one whiff of the city, crime or drugs and out came the jazz big-band scores! Some great stuff too! Quincy Jones In Cold Blood (1967) and In the Heat of the Night (1967) - I think it was Johnny Mandel who wrote the score for I Want to Live! (1958) and it's hard to imagine The French Connection (1971) without Don Ellis´ unique score. For me, however, one of my real favourites has to be the Miles Davis improvisations for Louis Malle´s film Lift to the Scaffold (1958)- there's a certain poignancy that really adds to the dialogue and gives that extra insight into character and situation."
S&S: In what ways does music best enhance a film?
"It's pretty obvious that we expect the music to help create atmosphere and add tension and release - a sense of time & place and so on - but I've always enjoyed those moments when the composer has been able to reveal something unseen and unspoken by the characters involved - a view into the subconscious perhaps?"
S&S: Which film either has music that you wished you'd written or is one you would like to rescore and why?
"I'd have to say that there are countless film scores that I wish I'd written and I wouldn't mind re-scoring a few of my own past efforts too! It's so often the case that once you have watched a scene with music attached, it's difficult to imagine it any other way. My usual gripe will be that the composer has forgotten that ´less is more´!"
Last Updated: 29 Sep 2008