CD Odyssey Disc 215: Soundtrack

On Friday Sheila and I went with friends Sherylyn and Joel to see Dan Mangan in concert. Dan Mangan is very cool live - he's a solid songwriter, and the show features much active encouragement for the audience to sing along - it feels great.

Before we went to the concert, Sherylyn cooked us all an incredible dinner. She is an amazing cook - as in 'could open her own restaurant' kind of good. So while the Odyssey didn't supply an album from the artist we went to see, it is fitting that it provided an album that is deeply related to the joy of good food.

Disc 215 is...Big Night Soundtrack

Artist: Various, but a lot of Louis Prima

Year of Release: 1996 but with music mostly from the fifties

What’s Up With The Cover?: It's a soundtrack so the cover is basically an extension of the movie poster. Here we have our four main characters arguing over food (this happens a lot in the movie).

How I Came To Know It: I saw the movie and liked the music, so the usual tale of the soundtrack.

How It Stacks Up: I have somewhere around 23 soundtracks (not including scores). I'd say this one is a bit on the weaker side - bottom third, but certainly not the worst.

Rating: 3 stars.

"Big Night" was a small movie which is basically a character study of two Italian brothers trying to make a go of it in the restaurant business in 1950s America (I think New York, but it's been a while since I've seen it). The brothers argue over how the restaurant should run, with one (played by Stanley Tucci) focused on making it a commercial success, and the other (played by Tony Shalhoub) unyielding in his interest in making the food of the highest quality.

Along the way, they find love (courtesy Minnie Driver and Juliette Binoche), have lots of arguments and get excited over a rumour that local music legend (and Italian-American icon) Louis Prima may be coming by for dinner at their restaurant. It sounds like a pretty lame plot when I spell it out, but it is actually a pretty good movie.

The music is full of 1950s swing and easy-listening jazz with the aforementioned Prima, his oft-paired musical partners Keely Smith and Sam Butera. This movie came out in the mid-nineties when swing was in full resurgence. I am sad to admit I gave in to what was fashionable at the time (in my defence - I discovered some pretty good music in the process).

"Big Night" is a classic example. As swing goes, I love the Prima/Butera/Smith gang, who were all contemporaries and often performed together. Alone or together, their music makes you feel like there is a great party going on, and you're invited.

Rounding out the soundtrack are some Opera-like numbers by Claudio Villa, an Italian singer that was a big deal in the fifties and sixties. I particularly like the song "Stornelli Amorisi" - an eight minute song that launches the album and puts you in the mood for what's to come. I'd tell you what it is about but I was never taught Italian so I have no idea.

The soundtrack also has the very dated sounding "Mambo Italiano" by Rosemary Clooney. This song is basically a series of Italian stereotypes and random words strung together with a catchy mambo beat. Some of the words aren't even Italian (i.e. 'enchillada') but as long as it sounds vaguely Italian it seems it is good enough for Rosemary.

As the descendant of Italian-Canadians (on my Mother's side) this song got a lot of play in my house growing up. Listening to it always made me wonder if Italians were that misunderstood in the fifties, or was the song supposed to be in jest? It certainly never offended us - if anything it was just plain goofy.

My Mom's parents were both Italian, but my Grandmother came to Canada as a very young girl, and although my Grandfather lived his early life in Italy, he died from a stroke shortly before I was born. All I have to remember him now are some old photos and the fact that I inherited his crazy-assed hair. Despite having little direct connection with the the ancestral homeland, over the years I have taken up my family's fierce self-identification with Italy.

I'd like to say that my connection to "Big Night" is simply a good movie, with good music, but I think I enjoy feeling a connection to the Italian characters, even though in truth I'm as Canadian as they come. Hey - we're all from somewhere, right?

I don't put this record on that often any more (I am not hot and bothered by swing at present) but I keep it because it has a few standards that I wouldn't want to be without when the fever returns.

Best tracks: Stornelli Amorisi, Oh Marie, Tic Ti Tic Ta, Don't Take Your Love From Me, Five Months Two Weeks Two Days