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Review of Swing Kids (James Horner)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... for the spirited vintage and re-recorded jazz classics that were the main reason the film was made.

Avoid it... if you're a James Horner collector for whom the drab and uninspired orchestral underscore will not be worth navigating through the jazz to find.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Swing Kids: (James Horner) Few people know that during the height of Adolf Hitler's reign in Germany, there was a loyal and popular following of American jazz music in the country. The youths that enjoyed the likes of Benny Goodman and Count Basie were, of course, engaging in a lifestyle that the Third Reich considered illegal behavior, and the film attempts to show their resilience in the name of music, to an extent. Where Swing Kids utterly fails as a movie is in its treatment of everything outside of the jazz itself. Almost as though the filmmakers made the 1930's jazz the main attraction of the film, they managed to neglect the gravity of the surrounding social and political events. While you become attached to a certain number of "swing kids" in the story, the film makes only vague and distant references to the persecution and war around them. When the youths are forced to either enlist in the army or be sent to concentration camps, their reactions aren't really clear, for in their jazz-centered view on life, they seem to have no feelings whatsoever for or against the Jewish people. This is especially strange given the complete logical misstep that the 1993 film makes by forgetting that if it weren't for Jews, there wouldn't have been music by Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw to enjoy in the first place. At any rate, the movie's lack of focus is important for soundtrack collectors because that disjointed attention within the plot causes significant problems for the album representing the film as well. Composer James Horner was at the height of his discovery of the human drama genre in 1993, a year that featured both The Pelican Brief and Searching for Bobby Fischer, and he would be called upon to once again to place the same weighty hand of orchestral emotion on Swing Kids. The only problem is that Horner was put into a position to write a score for only the horrors of war, and he would have absolutely nothing to contribute in the genre of the classic jazz, which is a shame given that the composer had proven in Field of Dreams and in snippets from his comedy works that he was indeed capable of offering an extension of that sound. His respectful tones unfortunately reflect nothing new in the man's career.

To say that Horner's contribution to Swing Kids is overshadowed by the jazz is an understatement. When discussing the actual 23 minutes of original score available on the commercial album, a disclaimer must be made right at the start that Horner seems to have bowed to the jazz music in the sense that he doesn't really attempt write anything that augments it or competes with it. Fully orchestral, the score rumbles in the depths of heavily mixed bass strings, with melodramatic classical chord progressions ominously churning the background as an adult choir (as opposed to his usual children's or strictly women's choirs) sometimes conveys vocals with the same style as in the opening and closing of Red Heat. A sense of urgency in his deliberate snare and cymbal-tapping is defied by the often excruciatingly slow tempo of his cues. Perhaps this is just an illusion due to the score being surrounded by such quick jazz pieces, but compared to other applicable war material by Horner, including Enemy at the Gates in a most related sense, only the tolling of chimes really distinguishes this music over the composer's similar assignments. As the film has difficulty pinpointing the exact personalities of the kids and their reasons for doing what they do, Horner stays away from the murky waters of such personalities. In fact, he provides no thematic material throughout the film whatsoever, further allowing his result to slip away very quickly from memory. The classic Horner four-note motif of evil is transferred to thunderous bass expressions in "Arvid Beaten," however. The jazz, on the other hand, was obviously the main intent for making the film, and even down to its louder mixing on album, the producers had this music first and foremost on their minds. The selections are very good in most cases, with a strong collection from the era applied to the film. The combined album is an extreme disappointment, though. Viewers of the film will want a compilation of the jazz heard in its length, and Horner collectors will likely have less than a 50/50 chance of being even remotely interested in that jazz. Unfortunately, the album mingles the two elements, interspersing score tracks in between jazz (both vintage and re-recorded) and causing both to suffer. The album was badly in need of separation of these two halves of music, because Horner's score does little more than cast a troubling shadow over Benny Goodman. As for the composer's part, the slight inspiration of individuality in the final cue cannot compensate for the extremely drab nature of the score's entirety.  **

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 53:08

• 1. Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing) - song by Louis Prima (4:57) • 2. Nothing to Report* (1:36) • 3. Shout and Feel It - song by Count Basie (2:27) • 4. It Don't Mean a Thing (If it Ain't Got that Swing) - performed by Billy Banks (2:48) • 5. The Letter* (4:09) • 6. Flat Foot Floogee - performed by Benny Goodman (3:17) • 7. Arvid Beaten* (2:10) • 8. Swingtime in the Rockies - performed by Benny Goodman (3:08) • 9. Daphne - song by Django Reinhardt (1:50) • 10. Training for Utopia* (3:43) • 11. Life Goes to a Party/Jumpin' at the Woodside - song by Bennie Goodman and Count Basie (2:17) • 12. Goodnight, My Love - performed by Benny Goodman (3:06) • 13. Ashes* (4:20) • 14. Bei Mir Bist Du Schon - performed by Janis Siegel (4:09) • 15. The Bismarck* (3:04) • 16. Swing Heil* (5:25)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes information about the jazz songs used in the film. Extensive credits are provided.

Notable Performers: Abe Most, Dan Higgins, Robert Tricarico, Gene Cipriano, Curt McGettrick (saxophones & woodwinds), Jerry Hey, Gary Grant, Larry Hall, Chuck Findley (trumpets), Bill Reichenbach, Lloyd Ulyate, John Johnson (trombones), Sid Page (violin), Michael Lang (piano), Dennis Budimir, Dean Parks (guitars), Ken Wild, Chuck Domonico (bass), Ralph Humphrey (drums).

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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Swing Kids are Copyright © 1993, Hollywood Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 6/15/98 and last updated 11/7/11.