Monday, October 24, 2016

The Leopard Son (1996), by Stewart Copeland

CD Retro Fan Review

Although Police founder and drummer Stewart Copeland played all the instruments himself on his 1980s albums and soundtracks, he began to open up his sound quite a bit in the 1990s by bringing other musicians into the mix. Such is the case with his beautiful and majestic score to the popular nature documentary, The Leopard Son.

For this session, Copeland enlists his Animal Logic bandmate Stanley Clarke on acoustic bass, Michael Thompson on guitars, and Judd Miller on ethnic wind instruments, allowing the composer to focus on piano, drums, and percussion.

Copeland also ditches the synthesizers for real strings and horns courtesy of The Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Michael T. Andreas.

The immense talents of Stewart Copeland and his players result in an eclectic convergence of pop, rock, jazz, and classical music that, combined with the roars of big cats as well as a bit of classic Police-style reggae, conveys both the sweet intimacy and the fierce ferocity of life in the African wilderness.

--Raj Manoharan

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