VA - Thriller Jazz (2006)

It's compilations like this that make one wish she or he lived in some other country where Universal does business because the U.S. gets the last consideration when it comes to reissues. The Japanese and Europeans come first and second, then Brazil and Latin America, then the United States, and this Music Club issue of jazz versions of spy movie music and thriller TV themes is a prime example. Take a gander at the track list: from Basie doing the theme from M-Squad and Lalo Schifrin's original Dirty Harry theme to the James Taylor Quartet's acid jazz reading of the Starsky and Hutch theme, the strange, spacy reading of Isaac Hayes' "Theme from Shaft" by the Alfred Hauser Orchestra, and Sammy Davis, Jr. wailing on "Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow" for the Baretta TV show, this set is all killer, no filler and highly recommended. For the most part, these are indeed jazz versions of these tunes, but there are no extended improvisations or academic strategies employed to cool them off. If anything, the joy most of these performers take in interpreting this material loosens them up considerably. -- Thom Jurek