Trotter Trio - Sketchin on Star Wars Jazz
By tunequest December 4, 2006
Interpretations of John Williams’ Star Wars music is a veritable cottage industry. A portion of it is sure to turn up at any concert performance featuring “movie music” as well as concert recordings featuring the same. Then, there’s Meco’s disco versions, The Evil Genius Orchestra’s excellent cocktail versions as well as countless techno/trance/club versions.
So it should come as no surprise that there is at least one jazz variation. The Trotter Trio lays out nine tracks from the original trilogy plus one “inspired by” song that incorporates quotes of the “Force Theme.” The styles range from uptempo swing jazz to mellow cool jazz. There’s even a hint of “smooth” jazz mixed in too but I won’t hold that against it.
Listening to this record, I can’t help but imagine Star Wars set, not as an epic space opera, but as a mirky black-and-white film noir, particularly when hearing Han Solo and the Princess:
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December 4th, 2006 at 5:26 pm
Heh… that was interesting. It calls up some additional images for me:
1. A Charlie Brown Christmas
2. Princess Leia relaxing in front of a fireplace with a glass of wine
3. Greedo playing the saxophone
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December 4th, 2006 at 9:29 pm
How ’bout a romantic candle-lit dinner in the Falcon? Greedo on sax, Chewbacca on skins and Lando on the keys… Solo and Leia sip Vasarian brandy and dine on a meal of Roba steak.
Han, narrating in the voice of a hard-boiled P.I. says, “You said you wanted to be around when I made a mistake. Well, this could be it, sweetheart.”
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December 4th, 2006 at 10:16 pm
Man… you are out-geeking for sure. I’ll have to look up “Vasarian brandy” and “Roba steak” and get back to you!
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December 4th, 2006 at 10:25 pm
Try the Wookieepedia. It’s where I got my info.
Trust me, My appreciation for Star Wars pretty much stops with the spaceships and music.
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