Track Listing

1. I'll See You in My Dreams - Alden Howard, Dick Hyman
2. Caravan - Bunny Berigan,
3. Sweet Georgia Brown
4. Unfaithful Woman
5. Viper Mad - Sidney Bechet, Noble Sissle
6. Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams (And Dream Your Troubles Away) - Alden Howard, Dick Hyman Group
7. Old Fashioned Love
8. Limehouse Blues/Mystery Pacific
9. Just a Gigolo
10. 3:00 A.M. Blues
11. All of Me/The Peanut Vendor
12. It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) - Alden Howard, Dick Hyman Group
13. Shine
14. I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles
15. There'll Be Some Changes Made

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21815 in Music
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 1999-11-23
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.com
Although Woody Allen has been using jazz from the '20s and '30s on his soundtracks since Sleeper, Sweet and Lowdown is his first movie featuring the musicians of the period. The story is about Emmett Ray, who is a brilliant guitarist but is always being unfavorably compared to Django Reinhardt. Allen hired the guitarist Howard Alden and the Dick Hyman Group to play the music of Ray and his band, and they have done an excellent job of recreating the small band swing of the '30s. Alden has assimilated the music of such guitarists as Eddie Lang, Karl Kress, and Django to create a guitar style that is unique yet also sounds thoroughly authentic. He is the Zelig of guitar players. This music has all of the excitement of '30s jazz with none of the stodginess that sometimes plagues other jazz revivalists. --Michael Simmons

Customer Reviews

Howard Alden Swings
What a pleasure to see a movie featuring the hip early jazz guitar stylings of Howard Alden emulating greats Eddie Lang, Karl Kress, and of course Django. The soundtrack is a nice collection, but I was greatly disappointed that my favorite parts of the movie -- Emmett Ray's solo musings without a band -- were completely ignored. Some of Eddie lang's and Django's best recordings were sans band. Howard Alden's solo forays in the movie really mined that vein well (who can forget the "talent show" scene, or "I'm forever blowing bubbles" played by Emmett to his girlfriend), but are missing in action on this soundtrack. I give it 3 stars because the music is still good. I'd love, however, to see Howard Alden release a CD of solo pieces in the same style as he played in Sweet and Lowdown. Until then, I'll bide my time with the great new 5 CD Django anthology of Hot Club recordings with Stephane Grapelli (including some of the above-mentioned solo pieces) "Classic early Recordings in Chronological Order", which at less than $25 is an absolute steal!

A great collection of period music
This soundtrack exists quite independently of the film. Both, however, are excellent, although not all the music on the CD, I believe, was featured on screen. I personally like the renditions of "All of Me" and "It Don't Mean a Thing." There are a few tracks of actual period recordings, and numerous reorchestrations and rerecordings, done by Woody's longtime collaborator, Dick Hyman. This is 30's jazz at its best, as depicted by "Sweet and Lowdown."

An excellent movie and soundtrack with one flaw
The soundtrack as well as the film are excellent, especially for Django afficionados who want to hear more of the "hot music" style of the era. The only flaw I find is that the beautiful solo chorale so important to the film (the one that Emmett plays for Hattie all the time, which is also the last one he plays before the ending) is not on this CD. Instead we get a different, faster, full quintet version of the same song ("I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles") that's almost a cruel tease. Despite that one amazingly large hole, this CD is spectacular.