Available from AMAZON (UK on May 13, US on May 7).
BRYAN FERRY CREATES JAZZ ‘VOICE’
FOR ‘THE GREAT GATSBY’
Following the critically acclaimed release of ‘The Jazz Age’ album late last year, Bryan Ferry and The Bryan Ferry Orchestra have provided the jazz recordings for the soundtrack to the highly-anticipated release of Baz Luhrmann’s ‘The Great Gatsby’.
After hearing ‘The Jazz Age’ album whilst the movie was still in production, Luhrmann asked Ferry to record some music for the film, which captured the same spirit of the 1920s.
Ferry says, “Baz felt the music we had recorded on our album worked well with his film, so he commissioned us to both rearrange elements of the score and also record in a period style the contemporary songs that he and Jay-Z had selected. We used the same orchestra that features on ‘The Jazz Age’ and recording commenced in January 2013.”
“Baz came to my studio during the sessions and he had a very clear idea of what music he wanted for each scene. We recorded to picture including a new version of ‘Love Is The Drug’. Baz is a strong creative force and the soundtrack is always going to be important in any movie he makes, especially a film like The Great Gatsby, where the music of the period is key to the film’s identity. Baz has a great understanding of the music from the 1920s, and it’s going to be very interesting to see how his musical collage works, combining contemporary songs with our period music.”
Luhrmann explains, “I heard the Jazz Age and said to Bryan “what about if you took our themes and record them with your band?” Then I said “what about if you do ‘Love Is The Drug’?…. and it just kept growing, and next he’s covering Jay Z, Amy Winehouse and Beyonce. And so he becomes the ‘Jazz Voice’ of the movie. We couldn’t have been luckier. Total serendipity.”
Photo: R.Grassie
The Bryan Ferry Orchestra have recorded a wide range of songs for the film, including ‘Crazy In Love’ (with Emeli Sande), which features on the Original Soundtrack Album together with Ferry’s own ‘Love Is The Drug’, and Jazz Age versions of ‘Bang Bang’ (Will.i.am), ‘Will You Still Love Me’ (Lana Del Rey) and ‘Back To Black’ (Amy Winehouse), ‘$100 Bills’ (Jay Z) all of which will be released together with the Bryan Ferry Orchestra score recordings on a companion Gatsby jazz soundtrack album.
RELATED LINKS:
THE QUIETUS (Article)
Saturday 7 September, 2013
EMELI SANDÉ
Emeli Sandé teamed up with The Bryan Ferry Orchestra for this big band take on Beyoncé’s smash “Crazy In Love” for Baz Luhrmann’s THE GREAT GATSBY.
Singer Emeli Sande was awarded the best British Album award by Bryan Ferry during the BRIT Awards, celebrating British pop music, at the O2 Arena in London on Feb 20, 2013
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BUZZFEED