More Tunes From Toons

As a segue to upcoming posts about music, today's topic continues the focus on tunes from toons. Kicking this off: Rocky & Bullwinkle.



While the visual and sound quality of the following clip leaves something to be desired, the Rocky & His Friends theme song and fanfare is fantastic.



Next up: the YouTube playlist of the soundtrack from the Adventures Of Rocky & Bullwinkle movie. Whatever one's opinion of the effort to translate an animated TV series to a live-action feature is, find it very enjoyable to hear themes from Jay Ward cartoons get the full orchestral treatment.



Composer, bandleader, performer Danny Elfman is responsible for lots of mind-blowingly great film, cartoon and concert music, including the score for Henry Selick’s The Nightmare Before Christmas - and the theme song from The Simpsons.

Here, playing the aforementioned theme song from The Simpsons, is Danny Elfman, live at Coachella.



Here, Mr. Elfman and a talented ensemble perform the rousing theme from the first Spider-man feature. It's not literally a tune from the toons, but we'll let that pass, as the TV cartoon Spider-man music wouldn't have been right for a big budget feature.



I can't imagine Danny Elfman coasting by merely rehashing the theme song from the 1967 Spider-man TV cartoon. Mr. Elfman successfully brought Spider-Man into the 21st century with the stirring scores for the Spider-man feature films.



Ranking high among this blogger's all-time favorite soundtracks: the music from the Betty Boop cartoon I Heard, performed beautifully by Don Redman & His Orchestra, which rivaled Louis Armstrong's group (led by Luis Russell), Bennie Moten, Cab Calloway and Fletcher Henderson among the top swing bands of the early 1930's.

The Don Redman Orchestra's music is throughout this excellent Fleischer cartoon, all the way from the opening titles.



This Fleischer studio cartoons, among several others, gets a shout-out from the amazing, informative and content-rich website The Department of Afro-American Research Arts and Culture. The Don Redman Orchestra and Betty Boop can be found here.

While all this important big band's recordings are well worth a listen or two (or three), we find The Don Redman Orchestra: Geneva 1946, from a Swiss radio broadcast, to be particularly musically outstanding.

Since the last post here featured Jeff Sanford's Cartoon Jazz Orchestra, here's the opening - Raymond Scott's Powerhouse and Merrily We Roll Along, the Merrie Melodies theme song - from the ensemble's Live At Pearl's CD, a treasure trove of exciting and expertly performed music from animated cartoons.



Animators John & Faith Hubley are well known for original animation featuring heaping helpings of American jazz. John's stint as director and creative force at UPA to some degree is synonomous with Rooty Toot Toot, an inspired take on "Frankie & Johnny." Animation enthusiast and author Michael Lyons wrote about it at length on the 70th anniversary of its theatrical release last November. Do we like cartoons about sex, obsession and murder trials, punctuated by honey-tonk music and big band jazz? Yes.



Rooty Toot Toot blends UPA's signature "Cartoon Modern" stylization with very expressive and imaginative full animation by the likes of Grim Natwick, Pat Matthews and Art Babbitt. Throughout Rooty Toot Toot, the music, along with the animation and graphic design, is an active character in the court melodrama.



Happily, at least at the moment, a bunch of animated short subjects by John & Faith Hubley have been posted on YouTube on the channel of markus feynman.

This includes a outstanding playlist of John & Faith's films. While they weren't the first to make animated short subjects featuring jazz soundtracks, the Hubleys tackled the task with enthusiasm.

Don't know if there is a Blu-ray collection including both John & Faith's films and those of Emily Hubley, who assisted on her parents' films before going on to create her own animated short subjects and live-action feature films. Such a Blu-ray would be fantastic.

Dizzy Gillespie and Dudley Moore, two all-time favorites here, contributed improvised dialogue for John And Faith Hubley's 1962 film The Hat.



From the MoMa collection, here is John & Faith Hubley's 1958 film The Tender Game, featuring an incredible soundtrack by The Oscar Peterson Trio, with a vocal by someone very familiar to jazz and swing fans. (note: this won't play here - go to YouTube)



The Hubleys and Dizzy Gillespie gently rib the challenges in creating scores for animated TV commercials in A Date With Dizzy. There is something beyond marvelous about seeing ace animators and mighty musicians share the scene.



Guitarist and studio ace Barney Kessel was no stranger to music from animated cartoons. Here's Barney, with Ray Brown and Shelley Manne, playing the Merrie Melodies theme song, The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down.



Hoyt Curtin's theme from The Flintstones may be the single favorite tune fron toons most often covered by jazz musicians.



It would be an understatement to note that "ace of string bass" Ray Brown went for the Flintstones theme in a big way.



Frequently with Ray: his fellow Verve House band compatriots (and ridiculously facile jazz guitar geniuses) Barney Kessel and Herb Ellis.



How many versions of Hoyt Curtin's theme from The Flintstones can we find? MANY more than can be shown in just one post! Here's pianist Monty Alexander, doing right by Fred, Barney, Wilma and Betty - and Hoyt Curtin. On board: usual suspects Ray Brown and Herb Ellis!



How do we close this compendium of classic tunes from classic cartoons? With the Rocky & His Friends theme song, played furiously by drummer/bandleader Buddy Rich and his big band.