Noir Cocktail: Job And The Power Of Lament

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I love the Job narrative. A good man tries to do right and horrible things happen to him. His payment for being good is divine punishment. His children die all in one day. His livestock are stolen. His properties are ransacked by raiders. His body breaks out in such horrible boils that dogs come to lick them.

Then his wife says these most painful of words: curse God and die. As if that weren’t enough, when his friends show up to offer “comfort,” they quickly turn on him. They refuse to acknowledge his innocence, no matter how much he protests. Everything that Job has believed in and trusted has failed. His existential crisis is absolute.

Yup. That’s Job. He is the original film noir character. You might never have heard of Job. Or, if you have, you might not see him as a noir character. But I do. How could I not? Give me just a moment, please, to make the connection between film noir and Job and then I’ll explain why I think this is important.

Film noir came to prominence in U.S. theaters after WWII, a time when many people were asking big questions. Is there justice in the world? How can so much evil run rampant? What is the nature of our reality? Is there right and wrong or is that a concept only suckers believe in? Will the rich and influential get away with crushing the poor and obscure? These are weighty questions indeed.

Film noir is, ultimately, resistance. It presents the awfulness of human existence in a naked and unabridged form to remind us that this is NOT how life should be. Film noir puts evil on display so it can be excoriated by the audience. It masks itself as simply documenting a certain reality. But what it really invites is disgust with that reality.

This is, I would argue, the fundamental nature of lament. Lament tells a brutally honest story of what has gone wrong for the express purpose of bearing witness to it, not letting things that are wrong ever be presented as right or good or acceptable. And in so doing, lament reconstitutes the honor of the offended. When innocence is crushed by power and greed and lust, lament says: “hell no, that won’t go.” Film noir does the same thing. And so does the Job narrative. There’s the connection I promised.

But why does this matter and why should we care about the Job narrative from thousands of years ago or even Film Noir, which had its heyday nearly 70 years ago, in the 1950s? Are Noir and lament still relevant today? Does this genre have something to say that matters in this modern age?

That all depends on how you answer these questions. Do the powerful still crush the weak? Does wrong still get portrayed as right? Do the rich still run roughshod over the poor? Do the innocent still get betrayed by the cunning? Does it seem like, while all of this is happening, the gods mock us? Maybe, just maybe, lament and noir still have something important to say.

The Origins Of Noir Cocktail

I owe much of my appreciation of the noir genre to Turner Classic Movies and particularly to Eddie Muller and his wonderful Noir Alley show. Hat tip to you Eddie. Noir Alley serves up some of the best classic noir films with every episode.

Eddie provides context and background on writers, directors, actors and even set designers for some of the most visually appealing sets I’ve ever seen. If you doubt this, given the black and white cinematography, I invite you to check out the murder and disposal of Shelly Winters’ body in The Night Of The Hunter. Absolutely stunning.

Here just a few of my favorite noir films:

  • Mildred Pierce (Yes, it’s a noir. Just ask Eddy).
  • Nightmare Alley (Both the 1947 and the 2021 versions).
  • The Third Man.
  • Out Of The Past.
  • The Big Sleep (a Bogie-Bacall classic).
  • The Night Of The Hunter.
  • The Maltese Falcon. (check out the wonderful San Francisco scenes).
  • Key Largo.
  • Chinatown.

If you watch any of these films, I’m sure you’ll be thoroughly entertained. But you’ll also encounter the themes I described above and may even come away with a feeling of disgust for the villainous characters. That’s perfect. Noir invites disgust.

This is background for how Noir Cocktail came to be.

Noir and lament both tell a brutally honest story of what has gone wrong for the express purpose of bearing witness to it, not letting things that are wrong ever be presented as right.

Who’s In The Band?

Noir Cocktail is NOT, just to be clear, an album that evokes classic noir music. The scores from the classic noir period typically do not include the gumshoe trumpet melodies that have become almost a stock-in-trade. There are horns in the original scores, but they really don’t become prominent until Chinatown in 1974. Jerry Goldsmith set a distinct tone and direction with that noir film and it has been the standard ever since.

In fact, it’s hard to conceive of noir stories without a horn-dominant score to accompany them. That’s why you’ll hear horn melodies, forlorn and winsome, throughout this album. Noir Cocktail contains more than fifteen instrument types that include:

  • Alto sax
  • Tenor sax
  • Baritone sax
  • Bass sax
  • Flugelhorn
  • Trumpet
  • Muted trumpet
  • Piccolo
  • Trombone
  • Vibraphones
  • Upright bass
  • Jazz drums
  • Grand piano
  • Boys choir
  • Glockenspiel
  • Small string section

If you listen to the music, you’ll feel the winsome melodies lifting you on a fog bank over San Francisco Bay, where, in the bars below, the bourbon goes down smooth and the betrayed still mourn lost loves.

How To Get The Most From Noir Cocktail

The noir genre continues to be very popular today. So, if you’re telling a classic or even a modern noir tale, this album works very well. Its spacious and simple horn-based melodies evoke noir sensibilities from the opening note to the very last note. But the music also works well for any narrative that uses horns to communicate powerful, usually sad or bitter, emotions. Drop a track in any timeline that needs a forlorn touch and I think you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Wrap Up

Thank you again for your interest in Supernatural Sounds, our music and our unique approach to crafting music for visual media. We tend to think of our library as a set of concept albums to support storytellers. We want each album to be as distinct and specific as the stories you’re trying to tell. We avoid generic music that can fit just anywhere. Noir Cocktail belongs to a tradition of horn-based noir music that gives emotional context to brutally honest stories. Just add a splash of bourbon.