Musical Musings Of A Mouldy Old Fig: Baz Luhrmann's Great Gatsby

The Rio Trio at the Brooks Brothers Great Gatsby party

Last week my band the Rio Trio, (a confusingly named five piece), played for a party at Brooks Brothers clothing store in RegentStreet. Their rather splendid clothes were featured in the new Gatsby movie (500 gentlemen's costumes apparently). Two of the chaps in the band are also in the movie providing the music from within the ranks of the excellent BryanFerry Orchestra - you can hear them on the official movie sound track here:

Great Gatsby movie soundtrack

Late last year the Bryan Ferry Orchestra brought out a splendid CD called The Jazz Age which featured covers of Mr Ferry's numerous hits done in a 1920's/30's style.

Bryan Ferry's The Jazz Age

The presiding genius in this project was arranger/pianist/musical director ColinGood who did a magnificent job of creating the period musical style to a tee. Rather a shame Stephen Poliakoff didn't use Colin to do the music for the recent Dancing on the Edge drama as I thought the music for that was.... well let's move on.

BBC Two's Dancing On The Edge - Dead Of Night Express - Angel Coulby

Baz's decision to use Jay Z to provide the music for a film set in the 20s seems an odd choice but I think he justified it very well when he said he wanted modern day audiences to appreciate how radical and dangerously subversive the jazz of the 20's was. A story that always sticks with me was told by the veteran journalist and broadcaster Alistair Cooke. When he was an Oxford student in the 1920's he purchased Louis Armstrong's West End Blues and played it on the family gramophone and he then discovered his mother weeping in the adjoining room. When he asked her why she was crying she said the music had terrified her.

West End Blues - Louis Armstrong

When we watch movies and TV series set in the 20's such as Downton Abbey we all ogle the clothes and the style and then happily go back to our ripped jeans and track suit bottoms (uh-oh rant alert, rant alert) rather like we watch Nigella in the kitchen knocking up glorious food and then head to the cupboard for a mid evening two bowls of coco pops (or maybe that's just me). So I was delighted to see the fabulous new "Gatsby Collection" on the racks of Brooks Brothers last night - then I looked at the prices and decided to await their 2014 "skintjazz musician" range.