COMPOSERS: Bryan Ferry Orchestra
LABELS: Sony
ALBUM TITLE: Brian Ferry Orchestra: A Selection of Yellow Cocktail Music
WORKS: A Selection of Yellow Cocktail Music
PERFORMER: Bryan Ferry Orchestra
CATALOGUE NO: 88883771142
After his Jazz Age disc, where singer Bryan Ferry revealed his passion for jazz-era music, comes this disc of 1920s-style arrangements inspired by (and including) music from Baz Luhrmann’s film The Great Gatsby.
It’s an intriguing release, as Ferry’s own music (and voice) get a vintage jazz makeover, as do other unlikely pop hits by Amy Winehouse and Beyoncé. And where the film’s soundtrack received criticism for mixing jazz with modern dance music, this disc succeeds in realigning these ‘new’ tunes within the crackling context of the jazz age. It’s unusual to find a recent Top 10 hit – itself an unlikely mix of Charleston-style jazz and dance beats – going through this transformation, but this is what happens to producer Will.i.am’s ‘Bang Bang’. It is re-imagined in an instrumental version, complete with strumming banjo and clarinet, by this ten-piece ‘Orchestra’.
Neil McKim