CD of The Week

The innovative and violent spaghetti westerns of directors such as Sergio Leone, Enzo G. Castellari, and Sergio Corbucci owe a good deal of their power to composers like Ennio Morricone and Luis Bacalov. These men created scores that weaved a variety of influences, such as jazz, gritty funk, and operatic sweep, infusing the films with a scope that can only be described as mythic.

Rome is a collaboration between ubiquitous producer/performer Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton and Italian composer Daniele Luppi. As a tribute to the music of those often outrageous, epic films, it works pretty well. Luppi and Danger Mouse have located many of the original musicians who played on the old scores--including the Cantoni Moderni choir heard in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly--and have employed them to great effect here, particularly on moody instrumentals such as "Roman Blue" and "The Gambling Priest." These pieces are wonderfully dense and evocative of the windswept trails, lawless locales, and scorching desert visuals found in films such as A Fistful of Dollars, Django and Duck, You Sucker!

But Rome also works independent of its associations, as its own album. In addition to the veteran musicians and vintage equipment, Danger Mouse brings in Jack White (who he seems to be challenging for the title of busiest man in music) and Norah Jones to provide vocals on several songs. Jones' contributions are subdued, aiming for sensual but landing on pleasant for the most part (although her lazy, low-key croon is a good fit for "Black"). White, on the other hand, brings the exact opposite--he's allowed the leeway to basically be Jack White. "The Rose With a Broken Neck" is a great example, overdubbing a couple of distinct, yet complementary vocal performances of White's to create something wonderfully eerie.

Danger Mouse has never shied from a stylistic departure or experiment, thankfully. Rome is the result of five years of work between superproducer Burton and composer Luppi, and it's a solid listen. The two creators have crafted a loving tribute to a powerful sound, but also an enjoyable album on its own merits.