Original Sin by Terence Blanchard

18 Mar

Written by Lee Prosser
font size decrease font size increase font size
Print
Email

This CD contains the music from the film of the same name. Not having seen it, I can't say whether or not it serves effectively as a soundtrack. What I can tell you is that, divorced from its visual context and placed onto a CD, it is virtually unlistenable.

Terence Blanchard is certainly a very talented young trumpeter and composer, but his strengths are not well played to here. The twenty five pieces, mostly brief, are almost invariably heavy handed, melodramatic and contrived. The mood of the score alternates between orchestral doom and gloom and ersatz Latin folkisms that seem as authentic as a Taco Bell Chalupa. Though there are moments of lyricism and occasional passages of interest to be found here, they are invariably, all too quickly engulfed by the album's relentless musical topor.

The album lacks jazz at its very core. The only notable trumpet solos are found on the closing theme, "Boat to Havana." This track is the closest thing to traditional jazz on the CD and is easily its most satisfying cut. But not satisfying enough to justify wading through the rest of the score.