Every month I contribute a segment to the Cocktail Nation radio show from Australia, where I offer a brief introduction to an interesting corner of pop culture and play cuts from soundtracks. This month I decided to return to one of my top-two favorites -The Avengers- and to the world of post-war British jazz. I'm sure Spy Vibers are familiar with Laurie Johnson's theme to The Avengers TV series, which seemed to blend the Edwardian charm of John Steed with Emma Peel's mod energy, and helped to put the "swing" in Swinging London. But music from the earlier years of the series channeled a different time, when London was still buzzing to the riffs of modern jazzmen like George Webb and Trad stalwarts such as Chris Barber. Among this crowd was Johnny Dankworth, husband of Cleo Laine and leader of the first British jazz band invited to play at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1959 -incidentally, the year of Brubeck's Time Out, Ah Um by Mingus, Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, and the year Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club was founded. The late Fifties and early Sixties was an interesting transition period between the back alleys of film noir and trench-coat clad detectives to the more youthful and playful world of the spy boom. John Steed actor, Patrick Macnee, quipped the initial series was "more dirty Mac than Saville Row." Dankworth's theme to The Avengers was right on course with these trends, providing a more somber atmosphere to the first cast of characters (Steed, Dr. Keel, Cathy Gale, and singer Venus Smith). Viewers in the US didn't get to see this early period of The Avengers, but genre fans in the late Fifties would have recognized the jazz vibe from programs such as Peter Gunn and Johnny Staccato. Hear Dankworth's 1961 track in my segment on Cocktail Nation. Johnny Dankworth appeared in one of my favorite films, All Night Long (1962), a jazz interpretation of Shakespeare's Macbeth, starring Patrick McGoohan (The Prisoner), Richard Attenborough (The Great Escape), Geoffrey Holder (Live and Let Die), and with appearances by Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus, John Scott (The Avengers, Goldfinger, Pink Panther), and many other music talents. Dankworth also went on to score the spy movies Modesty Blaise and Fathom. Enjoy!
Selected related posts: New Avengers comics, Avengers Blu-ray sets, Diana Rig R.I.P., Umbrella Man, Shakespeare Spies Rigg, Rigg eBook, Avengers Season 5 Titles, Avengers Interview: Michael Richardson, Avengers Interview: Rodney Marshall I, Avengers Interview: Rodney Marshall II, Rare Avengers Scripts, Lost Avengers Released, Season 5 Blu-ray speed comparison, Jean Varon Fashion, Mini-Killers, Mrs. Peel Audio Dramas.
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