The great Clint Eastwood first started his career as an actor, but later gained further prestige as a director with films such as Unforgiven (1992), for which he won the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture, Bridges of Madison County (1995), and Mystic River (2003), among many others.
Also, as a piano player and composer himself, Eastwood's love for jazz and blues is apparent when listening to the music he chose for the soundtracks of several of his movies. In fact, he used Erroll Garner's celebrated song "Mist y" in the first film he directed, titled Play Misty for Me (1971). Presented here is a collection of classic jazz, blues, swing and country performances featured in the soundtrack of some of his films.
Clint Eastwood interview Jazz Times in 2007: "When I was a kid growing up in Oakland, I started listening to a program called The Dixieland Jubilee. For fifteen minutes every day, they'd play the Frisco Jazz Band, Lu Watters' Yerba Buena Jazz Band, stuff like that. Then there was a jazz store out near El Cerrito, and I went out there and started listening to things and purchased a few records. Bop was starting to come in pretty good. So I went over and saw Dizzy Gillespie with a big band in San Francisco. There was a lot of blues being played around Oakland at that time - Ivory Joe Hunter, Joe Houston, Wynonie Harris - and I got wrapped up listening to that.
TRACK LISTING
Errol Garner - Misty (from Play Misty For Me)
Dinah Washington - I’ll Close My Eyes (from The Bridges Of Madison County)
Stan Getz - All The Thing You Are (from The Rookie)
Billie Holiday - I’ll Be Seeing You (from J. Edgar)
Thelonious Monk - Round Midnight (from Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser)
Marty Robbins - Don’t Worry (from A Perfect World)
Johnny Cash - Folsom Prison Blues (from Escape From Alcatraz)
Ahmad Jamal - Poinciana (from The Bridges Of Madison County)
Charlie Parker - Laura (from Bird)
Dinah Washington - Blue Gardenia (from The Bridges Of Madison County)
Perry Como - Catch A Falling Star (from A Perfect World)
Johnny Hartman - I See Your Face Before Me (from The Bridges Of Madison County)
Tony Bennett - I Wanna Be Around (from Midnight In The Garden Of Good and Evil)
Dean Martin - Ain’t That A Kick In The Head (from White Hunter Black Heart)
Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons - Sherry (from Jersey Boys)
