Trevor Jones is 77 years old today. He was born on 23 March 1949.
I find it hard to talk about film composers. Most people don’t. I know a lot of film fans who obsess about film scores. But I feel like a composer has made a mistake if I’m noticing the score — for good or bad. What’s more, the best composers fit their styles to the film at hand.
(Note: I feel the same way about directors. People obsess about directors with distinct styles. But I think, for example, Stanley Kubrick was better early in his career. Later, he ossified. And no amount of screaming “Genius!” will change that. Story bent to his style rather than his style bending to the story.)
Of course, Jones has a style. He’s more tuneful than most film composers. But he isn’t tuneful to a fault like one composer I could name. I like the way he combines this with interesting rhythms. And I can’t think of a better composer when it comes to setting a mood. And that’s even more true when the mood is dark!
Trevor Jones was born in South Africa as a “Coloured” person under Apartheid. But he demonstrated great musical gifts early on in life. And by his late teens, he was in London. He went to work for the BBC. He worked on Ripping Yarns. But John Boorman gave him his first big break composing parts of Excalibur.
Jones composed an amazing score for one of my all-time favorite films, Angel Heart. Typically, it is a soundtrack that is good all by itself. But it sets the tone perfectly for the film. It combines crooner tunes with the dark tone of the story, I doubt the film would work without his score.
But there is another Trevor Jones score that hasn’t gotten enough love from me: Dark City. It too is a fantastic film that all psychotronic fans should see! Jones again captures the essence of the film. He combines an orchestral score with electronic music. Usually, this doesn’t work for me. But it is, as usual, fantastic. Let’s watch it!
(Note: this is the director’s cut. It really is notably better than the producer’s cut.)
Trevor Jones via Spotify under Fair Use.