Harry Bosch And Jazz Music

I have to admit: I was converted to jazz, all thanks to the tv show called „Bosch,” telling the captivating story of an LAPD homicide detective who fights for justice at all costs. A powerful character, often teetering on the edge of the law, yet deeply nostalgic and reflective, he reaches for jazz vinyls in the evenings. The series is based on a multi-volume novel by Michael Connelly, who himself listened to jazz while writing it.

– I am not sure what it is but there is a connection or correlation between jazz and writing. There is also a connection between jazz and the detective. Whenever I write a Harry Bosch novel I am usually listening to jazz. It inspires me. Maybe the improvisation of the music helps the improvisation of the writing. I don’t know why but it helps. It also helps me set the character of this detective. Invariably, the music I am listening to ends up in the books — usually on Harry Bosch’s CD player. I think the music he listens to says a lot about him.

– said author himself on this website.

The music in the Bosch show is excellent, but the real magic happens when you launch a Spotify playlist created for the books and listen to what appears on the pages of each novel. One fan put together a 12-hour playlist, featuring all the important songs from both the film and the novels.

– I can’t say I was [originally] following in [the tradition of] writing about characters and jazz musicians that I love. I was reading books about jazz musicians. And I was going to record stores into the jazz sections and trying to find stuff. But you can’t really do that. You can’t do that research and listen to the stuff and choose what to use without falling in love with it. So that’s what happened to me. I became my father in that regard. So Harry Bosch, his music initially wasn’t my music, but now it’s totally my music.

– said Michael Connolly during an interview for Jazz88.FM.

A special place among Harry Bosch’s favorite artists is occupied by Art Pepper, an alto saxophonist from the West Coast whose life was marked by drug addiction, a story of redemption, and music brimming with emotions. Pepper’s music perfectly suits Bosch, illustrating his own struggle with the darkness and brutality of the world. When Connolly’s character returns home at night, turns on the record player, and then sits in the dark drinking wine, the sounds emanating from his living room’s large speakers become a gateway to another world for Bosch.

– I wanted him to have some of those dimensions of the private eye, kind of feel like an outsider. And to me jazz is an outsider’s music, especially saxophones. It’s just, I think it’s innately a lonely sound and that would be what Harry Bosch is about, his lonely pursuit of truth, of understanding about himself – Michael Connolly

In an iconic scene from the series, when Harry Bosch talks to his daughter about jazz and promises to buy her a turntable and a few vinyl records (season 1, episode 10), Maddie Bosch (played by Madison Lintz) takes a few records off the shelf and flips through them. One of them is Art Pepper’s Today (Galaxy GXY-5119), from which the track “Patricia”—which sets the tone for the entire scene—is taken (see the table below the text for more details). This track, which lasts over 10 minutes, has an incredibly interesting history. “Patricia” first appeared on the album The Return of Art Pepper (Score SLP 4031) in 1957, but in a 4:38 version. In 2009, Jazz Workshop (JW-001) released an audiophile edition of this album on 180g vinyl in Spain, where “Patricia” lasts only 3:35. I personally own this album in the Spanish version.

The version from Today was reportedly created by accident when, during a break in a recording session at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, pianist Stanley Cowell began playing this motif; the other musicians joined in, and a long blues-funk finale was improvised on the spot. A beautiful track that fits perfectly into any jazz playlist.

The second is the album GRACEfulLEE (PAZZ Productions, 2008), recorded in a single session in January 2008 by Grace Kelly and Lee Konitz, two alto saxophonists. When the musicians met to record a few tracks (they ended up recording the entire album), Kelly was 15 and Konitz was 80. Lee Konitz is a key figure in the history of jazz, though often underappreciated outside of expert circles. He played with Miles Davis on the album Birth of the Cool (1949–1950), collaborated with Lennie Tristano, and spent decades developing an alternative approach to jazz improvisation. The very young Kelly already had three other albums to her credit, and on these recordings she was accompanied by a lineup that many experienced musicians would not have dared to enter the studio with.

The catch is that this material was released exclusively on CD, and there was never a vinyl edition. In the scene from the show, Maddie is clearly holding a vinyl copy of GRACEfulLEE, which could mean that the cover was specially printed on a cardboard sleeve in album format to serve as a prop deliberately placed there. And here we come to an unexpected twist. Although no track from this album appears in the Bosch series (nor in the sequel Bosch Legacy), in the second episode of Season 2, Grace Kelly appears in person in a scene filmed at the Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood and performs the song “Blues For Harry Bosch” live. The song was commissioned by the show’s producers, and this fact was reported in the press.

The track “Blues For Harry Bosch” appeared on Kelly’s tenth album, Trying to Figure It Out, released in February 2016. And returning for a moment to GraceFulLee, it’s worth mentioning that while the album is highly regarded in jazz circles, it’s widely available on the market and doesn’t really hold the status of a collector’s item. Unless, of course, you’re a fan of Harry Bosch (played brilliantly by Titus Welliver) in either the film or book versions.

In 2003, a special limited edition jazz CD, Dark Sacred Night: The Music of Harry Bosch, was produced (unfortunately, it was never released on vinyl). The CD was distributed during the tour promoting Michael Connolly’s book „Lost Light,” is no longer available and has never been sold separately.

This CD has its own page on Amazon, and occasionally, though extremely rarely, used copies appear for sale there. At the time of writing, the CD was also not available on eBay.

Below is a list of the 10 most important jazz classic tunes from the Harry Bosch soundtrack – my subjective point of view.