What else sounds like this cocktail lounge muzak?

February 13, 2008 11:18 AM

What is some music that sounds similar to this? (see within)

In the opening scene of the movie Bob le Flambeur, the protagonist is exiting a nightclub cum after-hours gambling den. Throughout this scene, an eerie xylophone sort of muzak is being played, and when Bob exits the front of the club, he passes by a man practicing said xylophone on stage.

It is a drawn-out, sort of reverberating, cocktail-lounge-BGM sort of muzak. Semi-jazzy, maybe. (I think you'd need to see the scene in order to answer this.)

What is some music in this (early-jazz era, noirish nightclub muzak) vein? The film is from '58 but nods heavily to earlier film noir ambience, and is temporally kind of ambiguous, to me, at least, so it's hard to peg this weird music to an era.

posted by davidriley to media & arts (9 comments total)

Twin Peaks soundtrack, maybe? Specifically, the track called "Audrey's Dance."
posted by The World Famous at 11:34 AM on February 13, 2008

Was it perhaps a vibraphone?
posted by thinman at 11:58 AM on February 13, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

...And if it was, Gary Burton, seen in that video, is a fine, loungy vibes player.
posted by thinman at 12:06 PM on February 13, 2008

Music for a Bachelor's Den
posted by designbot at 12:08 PM on February 13, 2008

You might try listening to somafm's Secret Agent radio.
posted by bigmusic at 1:38 PM on February 13, 2008

thinman is right. It was a vibraphone. And that Gary Burton clip was superb, and the most similar stylistically to what I was thinking about, if only because it was specifically a vibraphone solo without accompaniment.

The other stuff was interesting but more upbeat by comparison. I suppose the tune in the movie was so slow and haunting that there is not really a proper analogue.

So, if anyone else wants to make suggestions, something like the Gary Burton would be a good jumping-off point...
posted by davidriley at 1:54 PM on February 13, 2008

Well, when I think of vibes, I think of Lionel Hampton.
posted by mumkin at 2:40 PM on February 13, 2008

I can think of quite a few vibraphonists, but I can't think of a lot of solo stuff. I don't really remember the movie very well, so take this with a grain of salt, but Roy Ayers, or maybe Walt Dickerson, might be closest to what you're looking for. Other vibraphonists (an incomplete list): Milt Jackson, Cal Tjader, Red Norvo, Bobby Hutcherson (my personal favorite), the already-mentioned Gary Burton and Lionel Hampton, Khan Jamal.
posted by box at 3:44 PM on February 13, 2008

Angelo Badalamenti uses some really wonderful noir-ish vibes on the Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me soundtrack. Particularly in Dont Do Anything (I wouldn't do), and Moving Through Time. And I am not sure if it fits the bill, but Walking by the Tindersticks is a rambling, gin-soaked vibraphone waltz.
posted by Benjamin Nushmutt at 3:13 AM on February 14, 2008