Bernstein: Backgrounds for Brando

This is the kind of album that would soon disappear from Elmer Bernstein's output, as he became sufficiently well established in his own right so that he never had to record other people's music again. But he acquits himself well here in his approaches to the music of Franz Waxman (Sayonara), Dimitri Tiomkin (The Men), Alex North (A Streetcar Named Desire), and even his own East Coast-based near-namesake Leonard Bernstein (On the Waterfront). The more lyrical material here tends to push that attribute even further in the arrangements, which add harp and reed flourishes to On the Waterfront's love theme, but where the playing has to be broad ("Fugue for Tinhorns" from Guys and Dolls) or moody ("Blues for Brando" from The Wild One), Bernstein and his orchestra rise to the occasion. The original Dot LP had ten tracks, which have been reshuffled and expanded to 14 for the 2006 CD reissue.