Night Lights Home

· This Week on Night Lights
· Current Audio File
· Description of Program
· Listen live Saturdays 11:10pm
· Host: David Brent Johnson
· Playlists
· Jazz News of Note
· Archives
· Jazz Internet Resources
· Contact Info/Bulletin
· Midwest Jazz Links
· Other WFIU Jazz Programs
· Misc. Jazz/Cultural Links
· The Book Nook

· WFIU Home Page

December 2, 2006
"The French Connection"
Listen to Program

This week on Night Lights it’s “The French Connection.” This 1971 crime drama was based on a real-life early-1960s New York City investigation that resulted in what was, at that time, the largest heroin bust ever in the United States. The film, starring Gene Hackman and Roy Schneider as characters modeled on narcotics officers Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso, was a box-office smash and won five Academy Awards. The soundtrack was composed and recorded by trumpeter Don Ellis, who had worked with musicians such as Charles Mingus, George Russell, and Maynard Ferguson before going on to form a progressive late-1960s big band renowned for its complex time signatures and its use of electronic and rock elements. (One critic once called Ellis “the Stan Kenton of the 1970s.”) In his score Ellis attempted to capture the sounds and feel of New York City circa 1970; ultimately he created not only a musical backdrop of urban drama, but also the sense of a system going dangerously awry, a country in the throes of Vietnam and on the verge of Watergate. (At times it sounds like Stan Kenton having a rather unpleasant psychedelic experience—and I mean that in a good way.) “The French Connection” airs Saturday, December 2 at 11:05 p.m. EST on WFIU.

For more information about Don Ellis, you can go here or here.

You can listen to a recent NPR interview with director Billy Friedkin here.

To read about one of the real-life New York City detectives in the case, go here.

French Connection factoid: Friedkin’s first two picks to play Popeye Doyle, the role eventually taken by Gene Hackman, were comedian Jackie Gleason and New York City columnist Jimmy Breslin. Hackman won a Best Actor Academy Award for his performance.