Review: Before he passed away in 1975 aged just 43, jazz musician and composer Oliver Nelson created a swathe of scores for film and TV, most notably Ironside and The Six Million Dollar man. This limited-edition release, the 19th in the 'Universal Pictures Film Music Classics Collection' brings two of Nelson's big-screen scores to CD for the first time. Tracks one to 18 form an expanded soundtrack to Western flick Death of a Gunfighter, a score in which Nelson focused on elegiac strings, melancholic motifs, suspenseful interludes and sweeping orchestration. The remainder of the CD presents the soundtrack to Skullduggery, a largely forgotten 'jungle adventure'. Nelson's music for this is more dashing, daring, upbeat and expansive, with extensive use of densely layered, tribal style percussion.
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