Jon Hamm and jazz. Who would have put those two together? It’s like one of those comedic cameos he’s been known to make in recent years in ads and TV shows, playing himself in unlikely situations, like on a date with Flo from Progressive Insurance or bitterly bemoaning other actors’ success in an Apple TV commercial. This latest iteration is the handiwork of Greg Mottola who directed the recently released film Confess, Fletch starring Hamm as an investigative journalist who gets entangled in a murder case, while also searching for a stolen art collection. Inexplicably, the screwball comedy features a jazz soundtrack that includes classic tracks from the Blue Note catalog, including “Moanin’” by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, “Senor Blues” by Horace Silver, and “Let’s Get Lost” by Chet Baker. (A complete track listing is below.) The soundtrack album has just been released by Blue Note Records.
To be fair, it’s not Hamm in the title role who is the jazz fan. It’s the character played by comedian and longtime The Daily Show correspondent Roy Wood, Jr. with whom Mottola matched his own love of jazz. “Blue Note records changed the way I listen to music,” said Mottola in a press release received by WBGO. “Having amassed a vinyl collection of the lion’s share of the Blue Note catalog, I've always dreamt of using that music in a movie. While conceiving Confess, Fletch, I had an idea that a character — a detective named Morris ‘Slo Mo’ Monroe, played by Roy Wood, Jr. — would be a jazz buff. I began to cut in some of my favorite tracks from Blue Note’s treasure trove. Then I thought: ‘Fletch used to live in LA. I bet he’d like West Coast Jazz,’ and I laid in some of my favorite Chet Baker tunes. I never expected my dream to come true, but here's the proof that it did. I’ll be forever grateful to Blue Note Records.”
Watch the trailer here:
Confess, Fletch (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) – Track Listing:
1. Tunnel Escape
2. Senor Blues – Horace Silver (from 6 Pieces of Silver)
3. Portuguese Washerwoman – Astrud Gilberto & Walter Wanderley (from A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness)
4. Goin’ Home – Ike Quebec (from Bossa Nova Soul Samba)
5. Let’s Get Lost – Chet Baker (from Chet Baker Sings And Plays)
6. This I Dig Of You – Hank Mobley (from Soul Station)
7. Don’t Explain – Dexter Gordon (from A Swingin’ Affair)
8. Stella By Starlight – Chet Baker (from Chet Baker Sextet)
9. Moanin’ – Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers (from Moanin’)
10. Dirty Water – Trombone Shorty (from Parking Lot Symphony)
11. Before The Tear Drops – Vintage Trouble (from 1 Hopeful Rd.)
12. Fletch In The Alley
12. Chilled Room – Zmeyev (from Bluewerks, Vol. 1: Up Down Left Right)
13. LATHI – Weird Genius & Sara Fajira (from Lagu Viral Indo)
14. Picasso
