GAZZARA plays SOUNDTRACKS
A musical journey into crime and spy cinema of the 1960s and 1970s
More than a dozen of crime and spy soundtrack themes written by Lalo Schifrin, John Barry, Ennio Morricone, Dave Grusin, Isaac Hayes, Mikis Theodorakis are played by a real live band with vintage 1960s/ 1970s sounds and synthesizers, while the classic movie frames are projected on a full screen behind the musicians: Bullitt (Steve McQueen, Jacqueline Bisset), Mission: Impossible, 007 - James Bond (Sean Connery) (Goldfinger, Thunderball, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Diamonds Are Forever), Three Days Of The Condor (Robert Redford), Serpico (Al Pacino), Violent City (Charles Bronson), Investigation of a Citizen Beyond Suspicion (GianMaria Volontè), Three Tough Guys (Isaac Hayes, Lino Ventura).
It’s dark in the hall and here’s the roar of a 1968 Ford Mustang introducing the audience to the steep roads of San Francisco, iconic location of Steve McQueen’s Bullitt car chase. While the opening credits are on screen, a live band led by keyboardist Francesco Gazzara - GAZZARA, ahead of Italian acid jazz and soul/funk music scene since 1996 - plays the original film scores with a classic vintage line up: drums, bass, two guitars (with Bruno Previtali from Goblin) and analog keyboards (hammond, rhodes, mellotron, ARP synthesizer), revisiting and trasforming orchestral moods into psychedelic jazz/funk sounds.
Right after argentinian composer Lalo Schifrin’s bossa/jazz (Bullitt, Mission Impossible), the live quintet plays some famous John Barry’s themes under the screen’s opening titles of classic 1960s James Bond - 007 movies with Sean Connery. Then it’s 1970s time with Robert Redford in Sidney Lumet’s Three Days Of The Condor and Al Pacino in Serpico, as the sound turns to NYC deep funk in the hands of composers Dave Grusin and Mikis Theodorakis. Later on Gazzara pays also homage to great Maestro Ennio Morricone revisiting a couple of his famous crime/enquiry film themes as Violent City and Investigation of a Citizen Beyond Suspicion. GAZZARA plays SOUNDTRACKS… set list offers a final hidden gem: Hung Up On My Baby is a track from 1974 cop movie’s soundtrack Three Tough Guys (Lino Ventura) written by Isaac Hayes. This is how Gazzara’s band closes the set, involving the audience with a soul/funk groove once again fueled by the original movie frames on the screen.
GAZZARA plays SOUNDTRACKS…:
Francesco Gazzara - keyboards
Massimo Sanna - bass
Mauro Mirti - drums
Bruno Previtali - guitar
James Gazzara - guitar
Room 26 is written by Lalo Schifrin