Man from Interpol

There's no question, listening to this music, that the producers of The Man from Interpol series were trying for the same kind of appeal that Henry Mancini's music had generated for Peter Gunn on American television — hence their choice of self-taught jazz drummer and pianist Tony Crombie (1925-2001) as composer, arranger, and leader in the recordings for the music from the series. The music isn't bad programmatic jazz, a bit old-fashioned on the big-band side of things, and sometimes rather generic, but always exciting and diverting, if lacking the subtleties (and bluesier) moments of Mancini's work on the Blake Edwards-produced Peter Gunn. Interestingly, the music here — and one heartily wishes that there were credits for who is playing — was effective enough so that when The Avengers went on the air in 1960, its producers opted for a similar jazz-inspired score and theme material, courtesy of Johnny Dankworth, with whom Crombie had worked in previous years. The sound is excellent and some of the playing is superb — this is not the kind of tired work that one heard in routine "trad jazz" sides of the period, and one does wish to know the name of the trumpet man blowing up a storm of "Motor Museum" here, or the vibraphonist on "Big Ben Bounce." Rock fans in general and Who fans in particular may also want to note the third from the last track here, "Eastern Journey," which the Who cribbed note for note and tarted up as "Cobwebs and Strange," credited to Keith Moon, on the Happy Jack album — this original explains a lot.