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[Sharps and Flats]

[Oranj Symphonette - Oranj Symphonette Plays Mancini - Gramavision]

picture Inspector Clouseau decked out in leather; or Holly Golightly with dreadlocks, getting irie in a smoke-filled reggae bar. Or close your eyes and come up with your own images — you can bet they'll look very different than the Hollywood scenes that originally inspired Henry Mancini's scores. But if you listen closely to the funhouse treatment given his music on"Oranj Symphonette Plays Mancini," the debut album from a quintet of the San Francisco Bay Area's most interesting improv musicians, it becomes clear that this band is not so much about deconstructing Mancini's music as it is about paying homage to it.

Mancini's music might seem like an unusual launching pad for musicians better known for their work with the likes of P.J. Harvey, Tom Waits and the B-52s. But as a pioneering composer who infused his film scores with modern jazz devices and pop and rock hooks, Mancini created some of the most memorable melodies since the golden age of Tin Pan Alley. And while Oranj Symphonette is anything but reverent with his music, the project works because of their respect for his craft.

The band features cellist/bassist Matt Brubeck, son of the legendary jazz pianist Dave Brubeck, brilliant multi-instrumentalist and former B-52s collaborator Ralph Carney (wind instruments are his specialty), guitarist Joe Gore (who played with PJ Harvey on her latest tour), Rob Burger on organ and accordion and powerhouse drummer Scott Amendola. Brubeck, Gore and Carney met while recording Tom Waits' score for the Jim Jarmusch film "Night On Earth," and began playing occasional ad hoc gigs. In 1993, the trio started exploring Mancini's music and recruited Amendola, best known for his work with guitarist Charlie Hunter and the band T.J. Kirk. The addition this year of Burger, an expert on the Hammond B3, filled out the band's sound and added a distinctly funky flavor.

The album opens with a thrash rave-up, "A Shot in the Dark," featuring Carney's R&B-flavored alto sax. The mood shifts suddenly with Brubeck's melancholy cello work on "Experiment in Terror." Even when sending up the kitschy exoticism of "Lujan," complete with eerie percussion effects, the band is laughing with Mancini. Amendola is the glue that holds the band together, powering the hyped-up, kinetic rhythmic shifts that make this such exhilarating listening. "Days of Wine and Roses," long a favorite vehicle for jazz musicians, is put away in under a minute, with Gore's keening guitar intertwining with Brubeck's upper register cello line.

Fittingly, the album's best piece is Mancini's trademark ballad, "Moon River." Brubeck introduces the haunting melody with a gorgeous bowed cello line, wringing out all of the tune's gentle pathos. But halfway through, the band switches gears and it's the Moon River snaking through Jamaica, as the rhythm turns into a loping mid-tempo reggae groove carried by Carney's earthy baritone sax. Mancini, who died in 1994 at the age of 70 and cast such a wide musical net in his own work, would have appreciated this tip of the hat.

— Andrew Gilbert

Andrew Gilbert is a Berkeley-based freelancer whose writing has appeared in Musician and Jazziz magazines. 












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