Rustin (Soundtrack from the Netflix Film) is the soundtrack to the 2023 film of the same name directed by George C. Wolfe based on the life of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin and starred Colman Domingo as the eponymous character. The album consisted of 33 tracks, majority of them were cues from the film score composed by Branford Marsalis, and four songs accompanied the album. The album released on November 3, 2023 by Netflix Music. Three singles—"Show Me Your Ideas", "The Knowing" and "Road to Freedom"—accompanied the soundtrack.

Development

The film marked Marsalis' second collaboration with Wolfe following The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2017) and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020).^[1] Most of the music he had written for the film is inspired from his roots in the music he had listened to as well as the interests of Wolfe's own music interests as a fan of blues music and its variations—jazz, gospel, rhythm and blues. According to Marsalis, the music is kind of a traditional R&B writing to start with the bass, drums and followed with other instruments. However, he approached a "big band" style of jazz music with brass and woodwinds to effectively capture the emotions of the sequences and fluctuate between a single and collective sound, which speaks within the larger reality of Rustin's work within Civil Rights Movement.^[2]

The song "Show Me Your Ideas" was served as the byproduct of the scene that required, he "create a sound that delivered enthusiasm sonically". The inspiration derived from the works of jazz artists from Blue Note Records—Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley, Art Blakey, Herbie Hancock to name a few—helped him give a sonic template that he felt best fit the scene. Wolfe also instructed Marsalis in shaping the film's soundtrack, with decisions to feature one instrument more heavily than others or playing with the instrument versus a chorus of them, with Marsalis said that cues with singular instruments were written with a full rhythm section or orchestral accompaniment, and those were removed as Wolfe felt that those scenes were more effective with single instrument.^[3]

Lenny Kravitz penned and recorded the original song "Road to Freedom" for the film. On approaching Kravitz, Wolfe said that he gave a one note that needed him to deliver audiences from feeling to action. Suggesting the use of trombones after being fascinated by using it while filming Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Wolfe brought in Trombone Shorty to contribute to the song.^[4][5]

Track listing

Reception

Nick Schager of The Daily Beast, Barry Levitt of /Film and Linden Sheri of The Hollywood Reporter called the music as "scintillating", "kinetic" and "vibrant".^[6][7][8] Jonathan Romney of Financial Times wrote Marsalis' "bristling jazz score helps blow away some of the dramatic dust".^[9] Tomris Laffly of TheWrap called the score "at times, as great an asset to Rustin as [Colman] Domingo's performance".^[10] David Ehrlich of IndieWire wrote "Branford Marsalis’ jazz score maintains the buoyancy of a man who refused to be kept down".^[11]

Accolades

Kravitz's original song "Road to Freedom" was poised to be in contention for Best Original Song category at the 96th Academy Awards,^[12] as well as Marsalis' score in the Best Original Score category.^[13]

References