Catching Up With Quartet Records

I got my new CD player for the computer so I am happily catching up with Quartet Records’ latest releases.

So great! Piero Piccioni (Colpo Rovente, Il Dio Sotto la Pelle), Ennio Morricone (Bandits in Rome, Maddalena, Vergogna Schifosi, Cat o’ Nine Tails), John Barry (Zulu), Henry Mancini (his final three Pink Panther scores)—and a Philippe Sarde score I really like, Le Train, on a CD of Le Chat/Le Train (along with some other Sarde releases).

They also reissued The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, which makes me feel old. This was the first CD I ever released, in 1996 (I was 21). I am glad to see it back in circulation, with terrific new mastering, packaging and liner notes.

Plus so many other great albums! See their site.

I am still overjoyed with their big Xmas release last year (I think it was around that time), Midnight Cowboy.

I stopped producing CDs for Film Score Monthly for a variety of reasons (mostly, I had hit burn-out)—but I felt okay with it because there were so many other specialty labels working diligently to release classic film scores, in beautiful packages.

Most of the other labels are run by folks I’ve known forever (Varèse Sarabande, Intrada, La-La Land, Kritzerland, BuySoundtrax)—but Quartet was not.

But José Benitez has been an absolute prince!

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in three decades of doing this (my entire adult life)—people are who they are. Most people are just flakes. They don’t care. Some are actively difficult (paranoid, two-faced, volatile).

And some are mensches. They like to be helpful and do good work...just for the sake of it.

My entire CD producing career happened because of people like this. (If not for George Feltenstein and Keith Zajic at Warner Bros., the FSM CDs would have stopped around 2002.)

I try to be that way, although there are certainly many ways in which I’m difficult.

José has always been wonderful, and I feel so lucky to have these CDs from him.

Keep up the great work, José and your team!