I'm BeBoppin' Too

Giving a special spark to the band are the contrasting styles of the three featured trumpet soloists: Hargrove, Gisbert and Claudio Roditi. Also enhancing the verve of the proceedings are the hip vocals of Gambarini, the best vocalist to sing with a Gillespie band since Sarah Vaughan. Her conflation of different lyrics for "'Round Midnight," in a memorable Hampton chart, is a treat, as is her scatting trades with horns on "Lover Come Back to Me" and perceptive reading of "If You Could See Me Now."
Director Shirley Clarke's film of Warren Miller's novel The Cool World, the first movie shot entirely in Harlem, telling a grim story of young people caught up in poverty and violence, was part of a golden age for jazz soundtracks, an era ('50s-60s) that also included Duke Ellington's score for Anatomy of a Murder and Miles Davis' Elevator to the Gallows. Mal Waldron's The Cool World score, alternately dark and moody and exhilaratingly brisk, is full of short, resonant tracks from a quintet also featuring pianist Kenny Barron (not Waldron), bassist Chris White and drummer Rudy Collins. Dizzy's trumpet, bending virtuosity to expressive emotional depths, dominates. The pieces themselves may be miniatures, but the performances, especially from Gillespie, are larger than life, making this one of the great jazz film scores.