Shelly Manne & His Men - Checkmate

The TV series Checkmate ran for 70 episodes on CBS from 1960-62, with Anthony George and Doug McClure playing the owners of a San Francisco detective agency, Checkmate Inc. They were aided by a criminologist portrayed by Sebastian Cabot.

The complete series was released on DVD in 2010, but with prices hovering in the $50 range I'd probably think twice about parting with my cash. I suspect it would make pretty tame (boring) viewing today.

Nonetheless Checkmate featured a fine jazz-tinged score by young composer Johnny Williams, who as the more mature-sounding John Williams would go on to write the scores for Star Wars, Superman, the Harry Potter films and other blockbusters.

Among the musicians appearing on the soundtrack of Checkmate was drummer Shelly Manne (1920-1984), a veteran of the West Coast jazz, studio and soundtrack scene. He was already the go-to guy for Henry Mancini and had performed on his classic TV scores for Peter Gunn and Mr. Lucky.

Manne also turned out his own version of the Peter Gunn score for the Contemporary label in 1959. The group was billed as Shelly Manne and His Men, a moniker that was also applied when the drummer turned his attention to the Checkmate score, again for Contemporary, in 1962. The other members of the group were tenor saxophonist Richie Kamuca, trumpeter Conte Condoli, Chuck Berghofer on bass and Russ Freeman on piano. The LP contained a wonderful ballad, Fireside Eyes.

Fireside Eyes



Shelly Manne's Checkmate was available briefly on CD via a 2002 release on Original Jazz Classics. A copy now will set you back $40-50. There is a download available from iTunes in some countries but its origin is highly suspect.

To close, Manne and his men tackle the title theme from Checkmate.