Across the 110th Street

Music by J. J. Johnson

 

 

 

 

 

"Trying to break out of the ghetto is a day-to-day fight"

 

Starring Anthony Quinn and Yaphet Kotto, the film Across the 110th Street (1971), was a violent crime drama typical of its time, which mixed ingredients of the emerging blaxploitation to the "mafia movie," two lines welcomed by the box office of the time.

Its soundtrack, divided between songs and instrumental pieces, is one of the best of the black power cinema. The crime and street life is very well expressed in the songs of Bobby Womack, one of the stars of soul music in the period. The instrumental pieces by J. J. Johnson, are excellent as ambiance tracks like Harlem Clavinette, a swing with the best "street wise" feel, tempered by flute solos and clavinette. Emblematic and powerful swings fill the soundtrack as in Hang on There and the instrumental version of the theme Across 110th Street led by potent metals and rhythmic urgency. The sentimental ballads is heard in Harlem Love Theme, and If You Do not Want My Love, with romantic trumpets. But above all shines the great theme, Across 110th Street, written by Bobby Womack and J. J. Johnson (used by Quentin Tarantino as theme for Jackie Brown). With its "spoken" lyrics and equilibrated mix of electronic texture, soul and string support, the theme displays a scathing letter to a remarkably urban sound. It goes beyond its position as a movie theme to reserve its deserved place as one of the great classics of black music at all times.