Description

The Hustler was the first truly iconic film of Paul Newmans career. It was nominated for nine academy awards: best picture, actor, actress, director, screenplay, cinematography, art direction and two for best supporting actor. The beautiful Jazz score finally re-released on vinyl, is by the composer Kenyon Hopkins (Baby Doll, 12 Angry Men, The Fugitive Kind).

A great and much underrated composer of jazz-inflected film scores and musical portraits. Hopkins worked in television beginning in the mid-1950s and branched out into film scoring soon after.

Hopkins was particularly adept at using jazz themes, rhythms, and orchestrations in his scores, often paralleling the down-and-out subjects and settings on screen with what Basic Hip has called, smoky,gritty, rotten-to-the-core jazz.