The JazzWax Film Festival continues with the French portion of our cinema journey. Today, I'm screening Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons). Directed by Roger Vadim and released in 1959, the film stars Jeanne Moreau, Gerard Phillipe and Annette Vadim. The movie is loosely based on the 1782 novel of the same name by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, except it's set in France of 1959. To tell you what the film is about, even in summary, would spoil it.
The film was massively popular in France and the first to expose Moreau (above) to an international audience (Jules and Jim in 1962 would make her a star). Jazz fans know that the Dangerous Liaisons soundtrack features the music of Thelonious Monk. He was to have composed original music for the film but health issues and a time crunch resulted in Monk recording existing material. He was backed by Charlie Rouse and Barney Wilen (ts), Sam Jones (b) and Art Taylor (d). Monk's music was recorded in July 1959 but wasn't released until 2017. For more on the story behind Monk's inclusion and why the recording took so long to surface, go here.
Additional music for the film was recorded by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Recorded on the same day, the musicians included Lee Morgan (tp) Wilen (ts,sop), Bobby Timmons and Duke Jordan (p), Jymie Merritt (b) Blakey (d), Johnny Rodriguez (bgo) and Tommy Lopez and Willie Rodriguez (cga). The year 1960 was added to the film's title when it was released in the U.S. with subtitles. Even a French film sounds more sophisticated with Monk and Blakey as a backdrop.
But the music by Blakey has a story behind it. Here are Doris Parker's liner notes to the music re-issued on Charlie Parker Records in 1962, with Duke Jordan (piano), Charlie Rouse (tenor saxophone), Sonny Cohn (trumpet), Eddie Kahn (bass) and Art Taylor (drums):
It was 10:30 a.m. on the morning of January 12, 1962. I saw Duke Jordan relive something that occurred just months short of three years ago, when Duke first played this music and this morning he repeated it in hopes of this time claiming his due recognition as composer and artist. A man of Duke Jordan's talent and distinction as an artist is not easily hampered or disillusioned by the acts of others, as as was the case when his music was misused and the credit denied him three years ago. We hope that this album of Duke Jordan's music will live as a symbol of patience, faith and endurance to all who have gone before and to those who aspire music as a profession and art, in the future.
The feeling of this performance is one of true musicianship. Art Taylor and Charlie Rouse, two of the original members of Duke's group when he first recorded this music, are heard here. Also present was Ray Abrams, who worked on the original music. For this performance, we added Eddie Kahn on bass and Sonny Cohn on trumpet. The original compositions were four as recorded in 1959, but through misuse by other persons, the melodies became separated, and acquired different titles.
Here's the irresistible Jeanne Moreau in Dangerous Liaisons...
