THE FACES OF HENRY MANCINI

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34126, 12 April 1976, Page 1

THE FACES OF HENRY MANCINI

( By

JOHN McNEIL

Mancini magic — which even before the advent of the fabled pussy painter of pinks had won two Academy Awards and 11 Grammies — may be just a myth.

jOn first meeting, Mancini seems no magician, simply a musician with tai- I ent and the propensity to work hard. The fruit of his labour will be evident in the Town Hall this evening when 35 New Zealand musicians will join the piano, bass, drums, trumpet, and saxophone combination Mr Mancini tours with to play the charts that, married to i celluloid, have become 1 household words to those who have seen the films or televison replays. Mr Mancini tries to arrange one overseas tour each year. This year, New Zealand is the lucky recipient — last year, Japanese players worked • the same scores we are to hear this evening. There are some differences. “More in the national character,” says Mr Mancini. “The Japanese players drawn from their symphony orchestras are very competent, but exhibit a more relaxed approach to their playing than did, say, Israelis.” But a word of encouragement for Christchurch music-lovers who stay away in droves when orchestras like the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Field play here — none of the musicians in foreign countries find the music difficult to play, and the charts for “The Pink Panther” will be as for the film. Why the tours? It seemed,

in response to that and other questions. that pulling scores for films is rather more difficult than rabbits from the hat. Mr Mancini enjoys the changes that success allows him, and revels in the role of visiting conductor, pianist, arranger, and composer. Much of his later fortune has been tied to that of the director of the television series that first made Mancini a household musician, for it was Blake Edwards who created the MCCOMtM “Peter Gunn” television series which introduced . a new type of detective, and some of Mancini’s award-winning music. Edwards later made ‘‘The Pink Panther" films. I But there were good films i and much music before that. A younger Mancini ’ was chosen from others ' on the staff of Universal ■ Pictures to liberate the • charts of the famous ; big-band conductor, Glenn Miller, from a warehouse in !*iew Jersey, and to bring to the films music that is again I making the charts. Through its successor, “The Benny Goodman Story,” and in working with Goodman, Mancini met many of the great musicians of an earlier era, among them Gene Krupa, Jack Teagarden, and Louis Armstrong. ,The Academy Awards came in collaboration with the lyricist, Johnny Mercer, and were for songs from the scores for "Breakfast at Tiffany's” C“Moon River”) and the film of the same name, “Days of Wine and Roses.”