'Shaft's Big Score' - Gordon Parks (1972)

Gordon Park's score for the second Shaft film seems to have fallen into some sort of soundtrack netherworld. The O.C Smith theme song "Blowin' Your Mind" (which is almost a continuation of the original Isaac Hayes theme) has appeared on a few blaxploitation compilations, but the rest of it remains out of print. Even a "Best Of Shaft" compilation released in 1999 completely omits this album, focusing on the first and third films, "Shaft" and "Shaft In Africa".

Critical opinion of "Shaft's Big Score", when it has existed has generally been quite disparaging, focusing on the fact that Parks (who also directed the first two Shaft films) had to complete this soundtrack in two weeks, with Isaac Hayes apparently being unavailable.

But let me put it to you that this soundtrack is worth a listen (and a download) - Parks is an interesting composer working with great orchestrators. He takes Hayes' funk, strings and brass template, and adds in subtle, shifting woodwind textures, developing and extending the pastiche riffs - it's a true musical "sequel" to the original Shaft.

There's more jazz here. In two earlier short tracks - "The Other Side" has the melancholy of some of the sequences in Marvin Gaye's "Trouble Man". The track "First Meeting" (in the traditional blaxploitation 'love theme' role) has a beautiful interplay between muted vibes, dark minor strings, and Freddie Hubbard's trumpet soloing over brass chord clusters.

There's some filler, and a couple of OC Smith vocal tracks, but the master track here is the thirteen minute "Symphony for Shafted Souls", which takes up all of side two on the album. Starting off in traditional chase music territory, it breaks down in the middle to a rolling, repeating series of chords that are passed between brass and strings. Snatches of all the main themes start to come back in, then Freddie Hubbard's trumpet leads the orchestra to a big-band finish.

I found this in one of those amazing Tokyo record shops in 2000. There's a bit of dust, but the vinyl's in much better condition than the dirty old cover I've scanned above :)

While you're listening, read a bit about Gordon Parks, who was something of a renaissance man - besides directing the Shaft films, he was a major LIFE magazine photographer, a civil rights campaigner, published books of poetry, composed music for operas and theatre, and generally worked across many forms of art, guided by a social politics that was concerned with poverty and inequality. His Wikipedia page has some good detail. Also, here's a sequence of his photos.

'Shaft's Big Score' - Gordon Parks (1972)

TRACKLIST
01 Blowin´ Your Mind (Vocal : O.C. Smith)
02 The Other Side
03 Smart Money
04 First Meeting
05 Asby-Kelly Man
06 Don´t Misunderstand (Vocal : O.C. Smith)
07 Move On It (Vocal : O.C. Smith)
08 Symphony For Shafted Souls
(The Big Chase)
Take Off / Dance of the Cars / Water Ballet (Part I) / Water Ballet (Part II) / Call and Response / The Last Amen.

PERSONNEL
Composer - Gordon Parks
Producer - Tom McIntosh
Engineer - Aaron Rochin
Conducted by Dick Hazard (great name!)
Orchestrations by Dick Hazard, Tom McIntosh, Jimmy Jones, Dale Oehler.
Trumpet - Freddie Hubbard
Guitar - Joe Pass
Alto Sax - Marshal Royal
Vocals - O.C. Smith

Click the back cover (above) for more credits - edit : better scan somewhere further down in the comments. Also, scroll down in comments to get Funkback's "missing track" by Isaac Hayes (which is in the movie, but not on the album), as well as a 200dpi scan of the back cover that I've added on request.

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