{"id":2456,"date":"2011-03-07T11:39:42","date_gmt":"2011-03-07T16:39:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=2456"},"modified":"2011-03-07T11:39:42","modified_gmt":"2011-03-07T16:39:42","slug":"cd-jade-1995","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=2456","title":{"rendered":"CD: Jade (1995)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>J to L<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Rating: Very Good<\/p>\n

Label: La-La Land Records<\/a> \/ Released: November 30, 2010<\/p>\n

Tracks & Album Length: 15 tracks \/ (51:21)<\/p>\n

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Special Notes: 20-page colour booklet with hefty liner notes by Dan Goldwasser \/ Limited to 3000 copies.<\/p>\n

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Composer: James Horner<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

Jade<\/strong> isn\u2019t a particularly remarkable score in James Horner\u2019s canon (yes, he has a canon<\/em>), but in reflection, it\u2019s fair to say his integration of electronics, ethnic instruments, and modern classicism during the nineties was spot-on, whereas other scores by contemporaries such as Alan Silvestri or James Newton Howard (minus the modernism) are very much representative of an era when less is more wasn\u2019t always used.<\/p>\n

Jade<\/strong> also features Horner in a strangely quiet mood, although whether the laid back style ultimately suited the film is subjective. William Friedkin\u2019s direction wasn\u2019t his best, and Joe Eszterhas\u2019 script was another variation on a theme called Jagged Edge<\/strong> (1985) \u2013 the sexy-dangerous noir about guilt that he previously riffed (with flipped genders) in Basic Instinct<\/strong> (1992).<\/p>\n

Besides Friedkin\u2019s much-touted \u2018slow motion car chase\u2019 through Chinatown, Jade<\/strong> always felt like the lazy alternate Basic Instinct<\/strong> draft Eszterhas pulled out from the rubbish bin and, with a few name changes and some Asian imagery, sold for another ludicrous sum to a major studio. There was nothing in the film neither director nor composer could fix, although perhaps the somber tone of the music stemmed from the director wanting a score that felt organic, tethering together themes of murder, fear, clashing cultures, and a seaweed-tinted noir style without musical clich\u00e9s.<\/p>\n

Horner has repeated himself even when in a quiet mood. The discrete electronica in Unlawful Entry<\/strong> (1992) is basically Class Action<\/strong> (1991) minus one synthesizer and overt melody. In Jade<\/strong>, he sort of takes the synthetic components from the prior scores \u2013 mostly skittering bass, a favourite of Michael Kamen (The Krays<\/strong>) \u2013 and adds Asian flute, and some meandering piano notes.<\/p>\n

Among the suspense cues, a signature effect is to have airy tones descend without any discernable meter, over which are loose piano fingering on bass keys, with the erratic patterns punctuated by free-form sounds with an echoplexed synth slam \u2013 one of the most memorable components of Horner\u2019s Red Heat<\/strong> (1988).<\/p>\n

Another cue in Jade<\/strong> (\u201cStalking Patrice\u201d) recalls Gorky<\/strong> Park<\/strong> (1983), where a gentle classical cue (or in this case, a Chinese folk piece) begins, and Horner overdubs meandering bass keys. The cluster of notes thickens and obliterates the folk piece, and then disappears, letting the original music continue to its natural end.<\/p>\n

\u201cHome Video #2\u201d is comprised of a sustained synth chord, and emulated strings and wordless chorus which pulse much in the way voices were similarly edited and treated in Red Heat<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The problem with Horner is too many of his scores contain ideas from prior works, played out almost verbatim, but much in the way Bernard Herrmann did some of his own self-appropriating (oh, he most certainly did), the final product is always beautifully orchestrated and performed.<\/p>\n

Perhaps with Horner, it was a case where he liked certain sound combinations, and felt there was no reason to re-use them because a) they worked, b) they were part of his scoring style, or c) as the liner notes seem to infer, Friedkin wanted the sounds that brought Horner to his attention in the first place.<\/p>\n

The plus side of Jade<\/strong> is it\u2019s an interesting variation on Horner\u2019s suspense motifs, but as a suite on CD, much like the film, it\u2019s too brief, and lacks certain cohesion. In fairness, Horner gave Friedkin what he wanted, and his score had to function between other folk, classical, and source music (some of which are included after the score suite), but the music from Jade<\/strong> still feels like a patchwork of sounds that sneak in, noodle around, make a few declarations, and dart off into the darkness.<\/p>\n

La-La Land\u2019s CD will be of importance to Horner completists, but if you have some of the cited older Horner scores, you already have Jade<\/strong>. The cues (26:46) are full versions, however, and the traditional and classical cues are also complete.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2011 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Soundtrack Album<\/a> — Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n

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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Soundtrack Reviews<\/a> <\/em>\/\u00a0J to L<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to:\u00a0Home \/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews \/ J to L . Rating: Very Good Label: La-La Land Records \/ Released: November 30, 2010 Tracks & Album Length: 15 tracks \/ (51:21) . Special Notes: 20-page colour booklet with hefty liner notes by Dan Goldwasser \/ Limited to 3000 copies. . Composer: James Horner . . Review: Jade […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[327],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-DC","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2456"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2459,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456\/revisions\/2459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}