Henry Mancini - The Henry Mancini 100th Sessions: Henry Has Company (2024)

This wide-ranging project features new versions of many of Henry Mancini's best-known soundtrack compositions in celebration of what would have been his 100th birthday. Mancini was nothing if not supremely adaptable in his music and television score work. He composed slinky, seductive private eye music like his footfall theme to the television series Peter Gunn, which is here given a jazzy, funky treatment courtesy of Quincy Jones, John Williams, Herbie Hancock and Arturo Sandoval. His supremely cool-tempoed title theme for Blake Edwards' 1963 comedy The Pink Panther is perhaps the most famous example of Mancini's pioneering incorporation of jazz into film music. The imaginative combo of Lizzo and Sir James Galway, both playing flute, team with a brassy studio band for a version that adheres to the contours of the original. Snarky Puppy take the most stylistic liberties, turning "Baby Elephant Walk," composed for 1962's Hatari, into a jazz funk explosion.

Most transcendent are a pair of lush, bittersweet ballads which are the results of Mancini's fruitful partnership with Edwards, as well as lyricist Johnny Mercer. Although still cool, '60s pop, his swaying main theme for Days of Wine and Roses—the emotional, cautionary tale of alcoholism starring Jack Lemon and Lee Remick—has a luscious sad tinge accented by the vocal sextet Take 6 and the journeywoman singing of Henry's daughter Monica Mancini.

"Moon River," the centerpiece of Breakfast at Tiffany's gets an appropriately smooth and rich rendition thanks to Michael Bublé. It's reprised a few songs later by the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and Stevie Wonder, who performs the famous harmonica part. There's dialogue from the film along with audio of Audrey Hepburn reading an affectionate letter she wrote to Mancini which closes with words that accurately sum up his inestimable talents—"You are the hippest of cats and most sensitive of composers." © Robert Baird

Tracklist
[2:42] 1. Henry Mancini - Peter Gunn
[2:40] 2. Henry Mancini - Pink Panther
[2:33] 3. Henry Mancini - Moon River
[3:19] 4. Henry Mancini - Lujon (Slow Hot Wind)
[4:12] 5. Henry Mancini - Days of Wine and Roses
[4:28] 6. Henry Mancini - Moon River / Audrey’s Letter
[6:58] 7. Henry Mancini - Baby Elephant Walk (Encore)