Anatomy of a Murder

Soundtrack Factory presents the Complete Original Soundtrack + 5 Bonus Tracks from Anatomy of a Murder, all Music Composed By Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn.

Soundtrack Factory presents the Complete Original Soundtrack + 5 Bonus Tracks from Anatomy of a Murder, all Music Composed By Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn.

The 1959 courtroom crime drama Anatomy of a Murder was directed by Otto Preminger and adapted Bby Wendell Mayes Bfrom the best-selling homonymous novel written by Michigan Supreme Court Justice John D. Voelker under the pen name Robert Traver. The film stars James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Eve Arden, and George C. Scott. 'Anatomy of a Murder' was one of theB first mainstream Hollywood films to address sex and rape in graphic terms. It includes one of Saul BBass’s most celebrated title sequences, and a musical score, presented here in its entirety, composed and performed by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. Ellington himself plays a character in the film, called Pie-Eye.

In 2012, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. Duke Ellington’s score won three Grammy Awards in 1959, for Best Performance by a Dance Band, Best Musical Composition First Recorded and Released in 1959 and Best Sound Track Album.

Duke had to wait until 1959 before being able to compose a full motion picture soundtrack score. Otto Preminger called him to write the music to his thriller 'Anatomy of a Murder' (starring James Stewart as a jazz loving attorney). The combination between the outstanding movie and Ellington’s unusual film score produced a classic, although both Duke and his fellow composer Billy Strayhorn thought that it was “essentially a song score”, more than a conceptual musical unity.

Duke Ellington & His Orchestra:Clark Terry, Cat Anderson, Harold “Shorty” Baker (tp),
Ray Nance (tp, vln,vcl), Quentin Jackson, Britt Woodman, John Sanders (tb), Jimmy Hamilton (cl, ts), Russell Procope (as, cl), Johnny Hodges (as, ss), Paul Gonsalves (ts), Harry Carney (bar,b-cl, cl), Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn (p,celeste), Jimmy Woode (b), Jimmy Johnson (d).
Columbia Films soundstage, Los Angeles, May 29 & June 1-2, 1959.