Quartet Records, in collaboration with Jay Productions, presents the premiere CD release of Paul Chihara’s noir score for Sidney Lumet’s masterful Prince Of The City (1981), starring Treat Williams, Jerry Orbach and Carmine Caridi. The film is about a New York City narcotics detective (Williams) who reluctantly agrees to cooperate with a special commission investigating police corruption; he soon realizes he’s in over his head and that nobody can be trusted.

Lumet chose Maestro Chihara, widely acclaimed in the field of contemporary music, and with more than 100 film and television credits to his name, to compose the score for his broadly political epic lasting almost three hours. Chihara wrote a beautiful noir theme for saxophone, reminiscent of those in Taxi Driver, Farewell My Lovely and Chinatown, but in his own style, accompanying the loneliness of the detective in his struggle between duty and feelings. More avant-garde music with impressionistic colors and a sense of fatality round out one of the composer’s best scores, and one of his personal favorites.

Due to a musicians strike in the United States, Chihara was forced to record the music in Paris, where the orchestra was conducted by none other than his friend Georges Delerue, with the participation of the famous French saxophonist Pierre Gossez. The score was released on vinyl in 1981 by Varèse Sarabande for the US and Canada, and Ter for the rest of the world. This is its first CD release, mastered by Chris Malone from the album master provided by Jay Productions. The package includes detailed liner notes by film music writer Daniel Schweiger, including quotes from an exclusive interview with composer Paul Chihara.