This document summarizes the album "The Music from Peter Gunn" by Henry Mancini. It discusses how the album became a hit in the late 1950s and early 1960s, featuring virtuoso jazz orchestrations that helped define the cool West Coast jazz sound. The album was so successful that a second volume, "More Music from Peter Gunn", was later released. Recent reissues of the albums on CD have improved sound quality and included bonus tracks, making this a valuable addition for jazz and soundtrack collections.

1. The Music from Peter Gunn
(1958-1961 TV Series)
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1. Peter Gunn 9. Slow And Easy
2. Sorta Blue 10. A Profound Gass
3. The Brothers Go To Mother's 11. Brief And Breezy
4. Dreamsville 12. Not From Dixie
5. Session At Pete's Pad 13. Walkin' Bass
6. Soft Sounds 14. Blue Steel
7. Fallout! 15. Spook!
8. The Floater 16. Blues For Mother's
This is not only a great CD but a key piece of jazz and pop music history. Back in 1958, Peter
Gunn was one of the unexpected hits of the new television season, capturing the imagination
of millions of viewers by mixing private eye action with a jazz setting. Composer Henry Mancini
was more than fluent in jazz, and his music nailed down the popularity of the series. With the
main title theme, a driving, ominous, exciting piece of music to lead off the album, The Music
from Peter Gunn became a huge hit, charting extraordinarily high for a television soundtrack
and doing so well that RCA Victor came back the next year asking for a second helping (More
Music From Peter Gunn) from Mancini.
The music holds up: Session at Pete's Pad is a superb workout for the trumpets of Pete
Candoli, Uan Rasey, Conrad Gozzo, and Frank Beach, while Barney Kessel's electric guitar
gets the spotlight during Dreamsville; and Sorta Blue and Fallout are full-ensemble pieces
that constitute quintessential cool West Coast jazz of the period. In other words, it's all
virtuoso orchestral jazz, presented in its optimum form.
Vibraphonist Victor Feldman is heavily featured and his instrument's soft, ringing tone plays a
key role here. Occasionally Mancini slips into turning out indistinctive, generic pieces, and
soundtrack-composer-to-be John Williams's piano playing can be plinky and stiff.
In 1999 the reactivated Buddha Records label gave The Music from Peter Gunn a new and
sharper digital transfer and added the four best tracks on More Music from Peter Gunn. The
improved sound and the extra tracks definitely justify the upgrade for those who own the old
CD, and make this a doubly valuable addition to any jazz or soundtrack collection of the era.

2. Outro comentário:
Henry Mancini was so successful with his Music From Peter Gunn album that RCA-Victor
brought him back into the studio for a second LP's worth of music from the Blake Edwards-
produced program. The second Peter Gunn album didn't do as well as the first, but it is almost
as strong musically. Notables on the sessions included drummer Shelly Manne, trumpet
virtuoso Pete Candoli, and pianist (and future film music giant) John Williams.
Thanks to American BMG's unwillingness to pay the higher mechanical royalties involved, they
refused to combine the two Peter Gunn albums on one CD when they upgraded the first album
on the Buddha label, choosing instead to simply add four bonus tracks off the second album to
the CD. The remaining eight numbers are about as strong as anything on Music From Peter
Gunn: Timothy may have its weak moments of comic effect, but even it includes some
diverting trumpet passages, and none of the rest needs any apology or explanation; My
Manne Shelly surprisingly isn't given over to Manne's drumming, though the latter does get
spotlighted in some surprisingly subtle playing for a featured number; Goofin' at the Coffee
House is a fine showcase for Victor Feldman's vibraphone, Pete Candoli's trumpet, John
Williams' pianio, and Ronnie Lang's flute work; Odd Ball is an exciting piece of effect music,
evoking action and suspense with some virtuoso playing by all concerned; and The Little Man
Theme is a great workout for Lang's flute, Ted Nash's piccolo, Williams' piano, and Bob Bain's
electric guitar.
The CD reissue of More Music From Peter Gunn is a European import that has been
augmented with four additional tracks: the original Peter Gunn, Mancini's main title from the
series Mr. Lucky and its Latin variant, and Mancini's main title theme from the Blake Edwards
movie Experiment in Terror. The CD has been remastered using a process called advance
noise reshaping, which has yielded a warm yet clear and detailed sound.