Help me identify this neat crime jazz tune with trombones..

December 21, 2010 2:34 PM

Please help me identify this crime jazz song (with great trombones!) from a sample of me whistling it.

Here is the sample (WAV, turn speakers down warning).

Notes 5-9 are from a really forceful trombone section. "DAH dah DAH dah DUMMM!"

I heard this song on an internet jazz station in about 2001. The sound quality and tune totally sounded like mid-20th century crime jazz to me.

Please help me get this out of my head and into my headphones! Thanks.

posted by circular to media & arts (11 answers total)

Sounds kinda like The Perry Mason Theme. But everything sounds like that to me.
posted by Bernt Pancreas at 2:45 PM on December 21, 2010

Nope, not the one. Thanks though.
posted by circular at 3:35 PM on December 21, 2010

Could it be from the Marvin Gaye 'Trouble Man' soundtrack? You should probably check out that album anyway.
posted by gnutron at 3:39 PM on December 21, 2010

Could it be from the Marvin Gaye 'Trouble Man' soundtrack?

Doesn't sound like it...thanks for the tip though.
posted by circular at 4:36 PM on December 21, 2010

Beat for Beatniks, by John Barry?
posted by idiomatika at 4:39 PM on December 21, 2010

That's not quite it, but the sound and style are very close!
posted by circular at 4:47 PM on December 21, 2010

The Get Smart intro?
posted by timshel at 2:44 AM on December 22, 2010

OK then, how about African Waltz, by Johnny Dankworth & His Orchestra
posted by idiomatika at 4:49 AM on December 22, 2010

Not Get Smart or African Waltz...much more driven and serious than those. Plus the bones section is really distinctive.
posted by circular at 8:27 AM on December 22, 2010

Sounds like the Odd Couple theme.
posted by loriginedumonde at 10:05 PM on December 25, 2010

Ah, I know what you mean by that. The trombone lick I'm looking for has the same note pattern as the keyboard sound in the Odd Couple theme.

But overall the tune is more driven, hard-hitting than the prancy Odd Couple theme, if that helps.

Hopefully I'll find this song somehow!

If it helps anyone: Here's a non-whistling version I made. The horns are sort of cheesy but probably get the idea across better.
posted by circular at 2:04 PM on December 28, 2010