Morricone Film Music

Personnel: Alessandro Alessandroni (whistling, guitar); Michele Lacerenza (trumpet).
Although this collection has some good music, it's not recommended as one of the first Morricone anthologies to check out because of its somewhat scattershot survey. Most of the 22 selections are taken from movie scores (some quite obscure) from 1961 to 1964, but there are also items dropped in from 1969, 1974, 1977, and 1982. A lot of the early-'60s pieces, in particular, are quite hard to come by otherwise, and some of them are quite lovely -- "Penso A Te" (1964) has that beloved guitar twang typical of his spaghetti western days, "Il Ritorna A Casa" (1962) has a charming European waltz-lilt, and "Abolicao" (from 1969's Burn) has searing organ riffs. But because it's neither stylistically unified (like The Legendary Italian Westerns compilation) nor smoothly programmed to blend his stylistic shifts (like Anthology or Film Music), it's more for committed Morricone fans than the general listener. ~ Richie Unterberger