Empire Jazz (1980)

Empire Jazz was part of an extensively-targeted multi-media marketing blitz by 20th Century Fox, the distributor of the 1980 Star Wars sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, and RSO, the record label that originally released composer John Williams’s double-disc soundtrack album from the film.

RSO, which stands for the Robert Stigwood Organization, it should be remembered, was the label, at the time, of the Bee Gees, Eric Clapton, Yvonne Elliman and Andy Gibb and home to the monster-hit soundtracks Saturday Night Fever (1977), Grease (1978) and Fame (1980). Despite the bomb that was Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), RSO had further hits with both Grease 2 (1982) and the Empire-sequel The Return of the Jedi (1983), before suddenly going out of business in 1983.

As part of its push, RSO also released such Empire-related records as Empire Jazz, Russian-born Boris Midney’s exquisite orchestral-funk disc Music from The Empire Strikes Back, and a spoken-word record with the original cast and narration by Milachi Throne, The Empire Strikes Back – The Adventures of Luke Skywalker (a similar record to the 1977 release The Story of Star Wars.)

Each of these “off-shoots” was issued as single discs, whose suggested pricing of $7.98 (the equivalent of about $30 today!) was meant to attract listeners unable or unwilling to fork over the suggested $13.98 for Williams’s original two-disc soundtrack. It’s fair to say, though, the film’s fans were more likely to shell out the money for William’s original than these gimmick-y knock-offs.

At the same time, RSO also issued an unusual – for the time – four-song, 10-inch 33-rpm EP (priced at $5.98) by Meco (Monardo), who had a number-one hit in 1977 with his cover of the “Star Wars” theme, called Meco Plays Music From “The Empire Strikes Back.” Oddly, a full LP was never in the cards.

This disc elicited a hit with “Empire Strikes Back” (a.k.a. “Empire Strikes Back [Medley] – Darth Vader’s Theme/Yoda’s Theme” on the EP), which cracked the Top 20 at number 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 – at the same time as Olivia Newton John’s “Magic” (from the hit film Xanadu) was number one.

Later in the year, RSO also issued Meco’s positively cringe-worthy Christmas in the Stars: Star Wars Christmas Album, with the added voice “benefits” of R2-D2 and C-3PO’s Anthony Daniels.

Bassist Ron Carter was charged with supervising the making of Empire Jazz. The choice, though, is a little perplexing. Carter was, then as now, one of jazz’s best and best-known bassists, but he was hardly a jazz super-seller (the above noted Boris Midney wasn’t much of a known quantity himself). Still, Carter had the reputation and clout to call any musician on the planet – except, perhaps, Miles Davis – for an assignment such as this and deliver a classy finished product.

With Empire Jazz, he surely succeeds. Peopled by a superb “All Star Jazz Ensemble,” Carter’s ten-piece group features himself, pianist Bob James, flautist Hubert Laws, trumpeters Jon Faddis and Joe Sheply, trombonist Eddie Bert, saxophonist Frank Wess, guitarist Jay Berliner, drummer Billy Cobham, and percussionist Ralph MacDonald. A headier crew is hard to imagine.

All were either veterans of Carter’s various solo recordings dating back to 1969 (notably Hubert Laws), or studio hands more than familiar with Carter, one of the world’s most recorded bassists (Carter also featured prominently on the previously-issued Bob James discs Touchdown and One on One, both big sellers at the time).

Such an aggregate might, at first, suggest a CTI All Stars reunion band. Indeed, Carter, James, Laws and Cobham were all former CTI All Stars. Most of the other musicians here have put in their time on various CTI sessions as well. But, surprisingly, Empire Jazz is not at all like a CTI session of the seventies. It’s more like a classic Verve session from the sixties or one of those “jazz versions” of Broadway musicals that were so prevalent throughout the fifties.

“This jazz rendition of…The Empire Strikes Back,” wrote Cashbox¹ at the time, “offers a fine collection of musicians making music about space without use of electronics. Using an earthy bebop approach, producer/arranger Ron Carter relies on roots and not branches to bring off the music.”

It’s no surprise that Carter, whose own records, back then, veered between the acoustic and the electric, would take Empire Jazz back to the future. The concept mirrors Star Wars‘s iconic opening-titles crawl, “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…,” at the same time as it presages jazz’s neo-traditional return to its acoustic past, led by such “young lions” of the day as Wynton Marsalis.

The disc opens with the martial theme “Imperial March,” perhaps the disc’s best-known theme. Laws takes the lead here, with solos for trumpet,² the flautist and Cobham. Carter’s fashioning of the march in the style of the jazz dirge “Django” is inspired (Carter had previously covered the John Lewis standard on the 1973 CTI disc Blues Farm, also with Laws, James and MacDonald in attendance).

“The Asteroid Field” is a bossa nova that turns slightly Spanish in the end, with solos for trumpet, piano, soprano sax, piccolo, trombone and flute. But side two is where things get interesting.

“Han Solo and the Princess (Love Theme)” is a showcase for Bob James’s piano. His watercolor touches have rarely sounded as lovely or as inspired as they do here. Carter adds his own characteristically painterly figures, while the chamber-jazz piece benefits from sensitively sparse horn embellishments. All percussion is absent here and, surprisingly, much more muted on the second side than the first.

“Lando’s Palace” is a feature for Frank Wess’s soprano sax and Carter, who is magnificent on bass. Cobham’s subtle stick work here is noteworthy, particularly on the extended bass solo: there is a rapport with Carter that is almost extraterrestrial.

“Yoda’s Theme” is taken as a waltz and is a feature for flugelhorn (probably Jon Faddis) and Eddie Bert’s trombone. A trumpet comes in to round out the piece.

While each of the five tracks here is long – giving the themes room to breathe and the players a real opportunity to explore Carter’s effective charts – it feels like more could have been done. At about 38 minutes of music, it feels like a lot of the musical story is still missing. Maybe a bit more electricity or funk would have helped.

“The album is loose, fairly straight-ahead jazz,” wrote Musician magazine,³ in much the same tone, “with virtually no studio-gimmickry laid on. In other words, I dig it; but what’s not to dig about a rhythmic section of Carter, Bob James, Billy Cobham and Jay Berliner jamming over some basically pretty and tasteful chord changes.”

Cashbox added that “Bob James, Hubert Laws, Billy Cobham, Ralph MacDonald and Carter should all be booked for a gig in Lando Calrissian’s casino-palace in the sky.”

This record, though, unlike the Boris Midney disc (self-issued on CD, minus the original cover’s artwork), has never seen the light of day on CD. At this point, it’s unlikely to, anyway: the original tapes have probably not survived and there’s likely no label able or willing to license the use of the characters pictured on the LP’s front cover.⁴

Aside from the Meco single, none of these spin-offs were met with much success. Empire Jazz peaked at number 50 on the Billboard Jazz chart and at number 168 on the Billboard 200 – only weeks after its initial release. Not surprisingly, the “spin-off” stunt was not repeated for Empire‘s sequel, Return of the Jedi (1983) or any of the later Star Wars entries.

If Empire Jazz lacks for music that is especially memorable, its music makers more than make up for it. Carter and company have really cooked up a grand meal out of the most basic of ingredients. Four decades removed from the hype and hyperbole that was the Star Wars marketing blitz of Summer 1980, Empire Jazz remains a strong jazz outing well worth checking out.

Endnotes:

1. Cashbox, July 12, 1980, p. 15. ↩︎
2. It’s not clear to this listener whether the trumpet solos here are by Jon Faddis or Joe Sheply. But my guess is that Faddis helms most, if not all, of the solos. ↩︎
3. Musician, October 1980, p. 16. ↩︎
4. Of all the Empire spin-off records, Empire Jazz sports the best cover. Artist Jeff Wack’s delightful airbrushed illustration features the unlikely jazz quartet of a Stormtrooper on tenor sax, Chewbacca on piano, C-3P0 on upright bass and R2-D2 on drums, playing for an audience of one, Darth Vader. Wack also illustrated the covers of the Boris Midney (featuring Princess Leia and Han Solo) and the Milachi Throne (featuring Luke Skywalker) discs. ↩︎