Jerry Fielding
[1922 - 1980] Opening shot. The glaring face invades into the open air by the sound of glissandos of reverberating strings in The Mechanic (1972). The music is startling. A sound warning. The blue sky is familiar, but the music leads immediately to another dimension, uncomfortable, destabilized, contrary, threatening. The glare face is Charles Bronson and the music by Jerry Fielding. And along the first 15 minutes of The Mechanic, is Fielding´s score that leads us and makes clear the expectation and suspense that personifies the film.
When the pod for the The Mechanic page was assembled, the audio player accused "unknown artist"! What a sad irony. For many years neglected by the soundtracks releases, both on vinyl and CD, the work of Jerry Fielding has finally received the deserved attention in remarkable CD editions by labels Intrada, LaLa Land and Film Score Monthly.
Jerry Fielding was possibly the most radical talent that ever worked on modern cinema. Started career composing and arranging for jazz bands (Tommy Dorsey and Kay Kyser). Had his name denounced to Hollywood´s Black List, on dark days of McCarthyism. That kept him out of work for several years through the 50s.
In the 60s, he composed music for the TV series Hogan's Heroes, Star Trek and Bewitched. His work was characterized by the pursuit of unusual as the military percussion in Johnny Got His Gun (1971) or Wild Bunch (1969), that sounds menacing instead of heroic or the emotional void of The Gambler (1974) or the otherworldly soundscapes of Demon Seed (1977).
His first film score was in 1962 for the drama Advise & Consent directed by Otto Preminger. But it was only in association with director Sam Peckinpah in Wild Bunch (1969) that highlighted his name on the movie market. The successful partnership naturally extended to other movies. Often tense and dissonant, Fielding´s music contributed to the violent work of Peckinpah on other great moments as Straw Dogs (1971), in which music insinuates itself under
film´s skin as a musical colic. If the film is heavy in its aesthetic violence, atmosphere and cinematography,
Fielding´s music says that even worse things happen at psychological level.
Director and musician would work later in Junior Bonner (1972), Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974) and Killer Elite (1975).
British director Michael Winner was also an important partner for often ordering Fielding´s music. Besides the fore mentioned The Mechanic, the partnership spawned, Lawman (1971), Chato's Land (1972), Scorpio (1973) and The Nightcomers (1972), a work that blended suspense climates to Victorian music.
Some works done for Clint Eastwood emphasized the influence of jazz as in The Enforcer (1976) and The Gauntlet (1977), or Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) one the great composer´s westerns.
Even stigmatized by thrillers and police dramas, Fielding has honorable additions in his career as the score for science fiction Demon Seed, and the surprising and humorous music for The Super Cops.
It would be curious to imagine his music in other films of its usual partners/directors. Death Wish, for example, might have been much more dramatic and strenuous than with Herbie Hancock music. The Getaway certainly would be less "pop" than with the stylish jazz of Quincy Jones. The importance of Jerry Fielding's work and its significance in the evolution of film soundtracks seems to have not been properly considered yet. The lead of jazz language to an almost symphonic development had in his music one of the highest points of creation in the cinema, but that despite it clearly point to new ways of writing for films, proved to be a dead end for lack of followers of the same ability.