“[On The Taking of Pelham, One Two Three] David Shire set out to create a sound that would be ‘New York jazz-oriented, hard-edged’ but with a ‘wise-cracking subtext to it’… The music is diabolically calculated and pulsating, yet swings like a big band from hell.”– from Chapter 1: Crime Jazz & Felonious Funk of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979
