CHiPs - Vol. 1: Season 2
Alan Silvestri
" Five well-rounded stars for a CD that never lets you down, and leaves you with a smile. "Written by Justin Boggan - Review of the limited release
Dnp dnp dnp dnp dnp dnp dnp dnp. Ah, those familiar opening eight notes. Cops went from average, small towns where they nip-you-in-the-butt, to gritty 60's, to California highways and beaches where the kick-beat was always on call.
When it came time to score CHiPs, producers called then already veteran TV composers, the prolific Mike Post, and his partner the late Pete Carpenter. While Post's recorded theme was dumped, his episode scores were not and he and a few other famous TV veterans scored the first season.
While their scores were top-notch work, creators sought younger, fresher sounds. A well known black arranger, whose name is still lost in time, was considered (strong possibility of Quincy Jones), but ultimately arranger Alan Silvestri was hired to helm season two. The TV show was his first (though he may have narrowly beaten CHiPs out by scoring a season 4 episode of Starsky & Hutch the same year), and he only had four film credits under his belt.
While the kick-beat was a requirement, Silvestri merged that with a fusion of jazz elements and deeply groovy rhythm I have still to this day not heard in another TV series.
Silvestri wastes no time establishing his style and masterfully dashes into it like he had already been scoring for over a year, tackling the "Peaks & Valleys" cues with fretless electric guitar, cymbal clashes in beat with the rhythm, synthesizer sounds, and trumpets. A dash of piano, three-note motif, and theme played on strings take us threw the first part of this suite. As a homage in his first episode score, the next cue in the suite opens with the prominent eight kick-beats (cymbal coming in on the fourth) before coming to an end in drum work. The musical ideas are stated again in the final cue of the suite.
Track 3, "Family Crisis", sports what every cue on the CD does: kick-beat and cymbal taps in rhythm, so I don't feel the need to tell you that again unless it varies in some way. Professional fretless guitar, the likes of which would even make the late Jaco Pastorius be with envy, take the place of motifs that would normally be played with orchestra, and an ascending melodic line over eight notes serves as the theme, played again in strings. In the middle of this piece the fretless guitar takes over in deep, reach down inside of you, chords with a secondary five-note theme. As if that wasn't good enough, Alan introduces a maraca and brings the fret down what seems like half an octave; it builds up and a low trumpet brings us and the four-note descending motif from earlier -- this time on fret -- to a snare drum four-note, and then ultimately back to the beautiful strings theme and trumpets lead out.
The next cue in the suite open with only four beats, winging off the use of theme and ideas in season two's score; indeed, any semblance of the "Main Title" is only heard a handful more times and in short spouts. It's followed by the theme from the opening credits and then the cue end.
I leave off here with my review instead of going from track-to-track. There is no point. If you don't like the funky goodness of the music after three or four tracks, then there is no helping for you.
The themes, the ideas, the use of the theme, the creativity, the fretless guitar that in one track sound like it's speaking to you, the dense and layered ideas playing at once you may not notice even ten listens in, and just the feel-good nature of this CD as a whole that can put a smile on your face and make the world go away, makes the low price of $19.95 for over 78 minutes of music, seem almost too good to be true. But it's true, all of it. I can't recommend this CD enough.
Go to ScreenArchives to hear some samples.
Five well-rounded stars for a CD that never lets you down, and leaves you with a smile.
Tracklisting
1. Main Title (1.18)
2. Peaks and Valleys (3.52)
3. Family Crisis (5.41)
4. Disaster Squad (6.19)
5. Neighborhood Watch (3.33)
6. High Flyer (6.15)
7. Trick or Trick (5.56)
8. The Grudge (5.12)
9. The Sheik (5.44)
10. Return of the Turks (5.37)
11. Supercycle (2.45)
12. High Explosive (4.46)
13. Down Time (2.48)
14. Repo Man (2.12)
15. Mait Team (4.03)
16. Pressure Point (2.43)
17. Rally 'Round the Bank (2.24)
18. Matchmakers (2.39)
19. Ponch's Disco (3.59)
20. End Credits (0.26)
Total Length: 78.12
When it came time to score CHiPs, producers called then already veteran TV composers, the prolific Mike Post, and his partner the late Pete Carpenter. While Post's recorded theme was dumped, his episode scores were not and he and a few other famous TV veterans scored the first season.
While their scores were top-notch work, creators sought younger, fresher sounds. A well known black arranger, whose name is still lost in time, was considered (strong possibility of Quincy Jones), but ultimately arranger Alan Silvestri was hired to helm season two. The TV show was his first (though he may have narrowly beaten CHiPs out by scoring a season 4 episode of Starsky & Hutch the same year), and he only had four film credits under his belt.
While the kick-beat was a requirement, Silvestri merged that with a fusion of jazz elements and deeply groovy rhythm I have still to this day not heard in another TV series.
Silvestri wastes no time establishing his style and masterfully dashes into it like he had already been scoring for over a year, tackling the "Peaks & Valleys" cues with fretless electric guitar, cymbal clashes in beat with the rhythm, synthesizer sounds, and trumpets. A dash of piano, three-note motif, and theme played on strings take us threw the first part of this suite. As a homage in his first episode score, the next cue in the suite opens with the prominent eight kick-beats (cymbal coming in on the fourth) before coming to an end in drum work. The musical ideas are stated again in the final cue of the suite.
Track 3, "Family Crisis", sports what every cue on the CD does: kick-beat and cymbal taps in rhythm, so I don't feel the need to tell you that again unless it varies in some way. Professional fretless guitar, the likes of which would even make the late Jaco Pastorius be with envy, take the place of motifs that would normally be played with orchestra, and an ascending melodic line over eight notes serves as the theme, played again in strings. In the middle of this piece the fretless guitar takes over in deep, reach down inside of you, chords with a secondary five-note theme. As if that wasn't good enough, Alan introduces a maraca and brings the fret down what seems like half an octave; it builds up and a low trumpet brings us and the four-note descending motif from earlier -- this time on fret -- to a snare drum four-note, and then ultimately back to the beautiful strings theme and trumpets lead out.
The next cue in the suite open with only four beats, winging off the use of theme and ideas in season two's score; indeed, any semblance of the "Main Title" is only heard a handful more times and in short spouts. It's followed by the theme from the opening credits and then the cue end.
I leave off here with my review instead of going from track-to-track. There is no point. If you don't like the funky goodness of the music after three or four tracks, then there is no helping for you.
The themes, the ideas, the use of the theme, the creativity, the fretless guitar that in one track sound like it's speaking to you, the dense and layered ideas playing at once you may not notice even ten listens in, and just the feel-good nature of this CD as a whole that can put a smile on your face and make the world go away, makes the low price of $19.95 for over 78 minutes of music, seem almost too good to be true. But it's true, all of it. I can't recommend this CD enough.
Go to ScreenArchives to hear some samples.
Five well-rounded stars for a CD that never lets you down, and leaves you with a smile.
Tracklisting
1. Main Title (1.18)
2. Peaks and Valleys (3.52)
3. Family Crisis (5.41)
4. Disaster Squad (6.19)
5. Neighborhood Watch (3.33)
6. High Flyer (6.15)
7. Trick or Trick (5.56)
8. The Grudge (5.12)
9. The Sheik (5.44)
10. Return of the Turks (5.37)
11. Supercycle (2.45)
12. High Explosive (4.46)
13. Down Time (2.48)
14. Repo Man (2.12)
15. Mait Team (4.03)
16. Pressure Point (2.43)
17. Rally 'Round the Bank (2.24)
18. Matchmakers (2.39)
19. Ponch's Disco (3.59)
20. End Credits (0.26)
Total Length: 78.12