A bit over four years ago I acquired one of my most-desired collectibles; it took me a very long time because I didn't want to pay what I call crazy money for it, so it was just a matter of waiting till I found a vendor selling their copy for what I considered a reasonable price, even though, as a promo, legally you can't sell it at all.
This is film music composed by Trevor Rabin, a promo CD released by Trevor's management company back in 2003, when they still went by Blue Focus Management.
I believe the year of release was 2003 because, although the artwork references the logo for The Banger Sisters, the photo of Trevor on the back cover was part of a photo session he did to promote his 2003 Voiceprint CD releases 90124 and Live In L.A. I like to think that the inclusion of purple flowers is a nod to his beloved jacaranda trees.
In the preceding years Trevor was beginning to perhaps garner a reputation beyond the "action movie go-to guy" which was largely the narrative of his scoring career at that point. This promo has a specific purpose in regards to its distribution to production companies: present Trevor in a more sensitive light as a film scorer. And two things had to happen before they could do that:
-1- One of Trevor's themes for Deep Blue Sea, "Aftermath," was used as the music in the trailer for Ron Howard's Oscar-bait biopic A Beautiful Mind.
-2- Trevor scored The Banger Sisters, the first - and only - "chick flick" he's worked on.
In light of these opportunities, this promo was created and it is unique for several reasons, but specifically for how it is described:
Though best known for his outstanding action scores, Trevor Rabin especially shines composing music of an emotional, lyrical nature. As a songwriter and member of Yes, he composed the worldwide hit "Owner of a Lonely Heart." Rabin's unique gift for melody continues throughout his film work. Featuring music from such diverse scores as Remember The Titans, The Banger Sisters, and the trailer for A Beautiful Mind, this CD compilation highlights some of Rabin's personal favorites.
It's marketing, certainly, but it's also an acknowledgement of Trevor's ability to compose anything, given the breadth of genres he had tackled after seven years in the business. By that time he had scored action-adventure, drama, comedy, horror, science-fiction, family, sports and espionage-type films. And within those seven years he had also written three of his most beautiful themes, two of which are included in this compilation. That fact alone speaks volumes in regards to Trevor's talent and abilities.
So onto the tracklist, with my annotations. Based on the period of release, the tracks included could only be from the scores of films released prior to 2003. It took me a while to research this once I figured out that some of the tracks were listed with titles which had perhaps been used prior to final sequencing for their respective films.
"Remember The Titans" from the film of the same name.
"Grace" from Armageddon, which is an edit of "Harry and Grace Make Peace" with additional elements from the film's suite.
"Banger Sisters" from The Banger Sisters, an edit of the main themes of the film.
"Prague" from Bad Company, a promotional mix which combines the theme "Prague Main Titles" with elements of "Welcome To Prague."
"A Beautiful Mind Trailer" which is actually "Aftermath" from Deep Blue Sea.
"Remembrance" which is actually "Trisha" from Con Air.
"Friendship" from The Banger Sisters, an edit of two separate cues.
"Sunrise" which is actually "First Kiss" from American Outlaws.
"Gettysburg" from Remember The Titans.
Back to the beautiful themes, the ones I refer to are "Prague" and "Aftermath" and the one which was not included was "Frostbite" from Jack Frost. I see it as a missed opportunity, but it's possible they weren't able to obtain clearance to use it. It would have been right at home, in my opinion, in terms of the overall emotive mood of this collection.
What primarily makes this release a rarity - besides its' Not For Sale status - is that it contains music from The Banger Sisters, which did not receive a score release, though Trevor's version of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" from the film is included in the movie's soundtrack album. The promo mix of "Prague" has also never been officially released - though if you were to obtain a copy of the score promo (because that score was also never released) for Bad Company you would have both tracks - the special mix was created either for this compilation or perhaps the score suite promo, which is often a separate release from a full score promo. You can also hear "Prague" in "BMBBO" from the Bad Company soundtrack, an edit which combines the themes "Prague" and "Chase." All the others are available on their respective score albums, though the selections from Remember The Titans are probably contained within "Titans Spirit" which appears on the film's soundtrack release.
Now we can consider...did this release do the trick? Yes and no, I think. Trevor still harbors a desire to do a "light orchestral" type of score, and has cited Michael Gore's score for Terms of Endearment as the type of work he would like to have a go at himself. But so far he has not been granted that particular opportunity. If anything, I believe Trevor has been given more work based on past credits (I believe he was handed Torque, for example, because of his score for Gone In 60 Seconds), but also films with decidedly more emotional gravitas, such as Flyboys, The Great Raid, and The Guardian - featuring yet another beautiful theme in "Rescuing Fischer." I believe his success was in gaining the trust of directors and producers in regards to creating wonderfully evocative themes and cues for his scoring work. Trevor's gift for melody makes these moments as poignant - sometimes in spite of the film as a whole - as they need to be, always in perfect accompaniment.
