By Jeff Swindoll Apr 9, 2008, 14:52 GMT
I suppose the “three documentaries and one film” music of Phillip Lambro didn’t have the same ring to it, but this collection puts together some odds and ends that Perseverance Records had of the composers.
His work for Crypt of the Living Dead (1973) and Murph the Surf (1975) had been released by the company and this disc continues their collaboration. Although I somewhat jokingly referred to them and “odds and ends” it doesn’t negate their power or importance.
The disc covers the documentaries Mineral King (1971), Father Pat (1970), and Celebration (1971). It also has the music that Lambro first composed in Hollywood for a dog of a film called Git! (1964). Lambro makes no qualms about saying that Git! is a terrible film but he did do a fine job on the score (which the director/producer ruined in the film, according to Lambro).
Mineral King is an outstanding work and won the National Board of Review’s award for best music for a documentary film. The documentary is about man encroaching on the Mineral King Valley and the opening titles solitary trumpet feels like a dirge for the potentially destroyed wilderness.
The documentary convinced congress to not allow the development and perhaps Lambro’s music worked some magic as well. It’s quite a fine collection of music no matter what kind of films they came from.
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