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Dragon's Domain Records presents the premiere release of music composed by Gerald Fried (THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., STAR TREK, ROOTS) for two films from his extensive filmography, DINO and I, MOBSTER.
DINO and I, MOBSTER celebrates two of Fried's gangster films from the late 1950s. "DINO" focuses on a paroled juvenile delinquent (Sal Mineo) who receives support from a social worker (Brian Keith) and a girl (Susan Kohner) from the slums and Roger Corman's I, MOBSTER (1959), which tells the story of the rise and fall of brutal gang lord Joe Sante (Steve Cochran). DINO and I, MOBSTER are two of Fried's most exciting crime film scores. With both of these scores, Fried embraces a mix of diegetic jazz and 1950s-styled dance tunes as source music to set the mood and tone of the story and identify the environment in which the films take place. He then uses those same instruments but without the jazz harmonization, more dramatic instrumentation, using the jazz instruments for the underscoring.
Born February, 1928 in the Bronx, Gerald Fried's interest in music found its first fruition at the High School of Music & Art in New York City. He attended The Juilliard School of Music as an oboe major, graduating in 1945. Among his earliest friends was Stanley Kubrick. The two of them used to hang around Greenwich Village and talk about their budding interests, Fried's in classical music and Kubrick's in filmmaking. Their interests merged when Kubrick began filming DAY OF THE FIGHT, an 18-minute short about boxing. Knowing Fried was a music major, Kubrick asked him if he could write the score for his boxing picture. Fried agreed, then spent months going to the movies to learn how film scores worked, there being no schools or courses on film music in those days. Fried wrote an effective score, and Kubrick sold the film to RKO Pathé. Fried rejoined Kubrick to score four more of his films, including THE KILLING and PATHS TO GLORY, where the young filmmaker first gained his reputation.
After the success of THE KILLING in 1956, Kubrick moved to Los Angeles, shortly followed by Fried, who was immediately hired to compose and arrange music for several films. By the 1960s, Fried moved into television, scoring episodes of GILLIGAN'S ISLAND, THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE and STAR TREK. By the 1970s Fried was composing music for numerous made-for-TV movies. His best-known score of the decade was for the 1977 miniseries ROOTS, which he took over scoring when Quincy Jones fell behind and was unable to meet the broadcast deadline for the eight-hour miniseries. Both Jones and Fried won Emmy Awards for their musical efforts on the series. Fried recently passed away in February 2023.
Dragon's Domain Records presents DINO and I, MOBSTER featuring music composed by Gerald Fried. The music has been mastered by James Nelson at Digital Outland and the liner notes have been written by noted author Randall Larson.
- BSX
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