Mickey takes his jazz and murder troupes further in "The Strip" the following year. This time he plays a just returned Korean War vet and jazz drummer Stan Maxton playing in a club on L.A.’s Sunset Strip. Not quite a noir musical (that distinction surely lies with the Weil and Brecht- inspired "Cop Rock" from Steven Bochco wherein junkies sang to the babies they were about to sell and dirty cops lyrically lamenting the murder they had to do in service to the badge), "The Strip" contains several singing numbers including "Basin Street Blues," "Don’t Blame Me" and a "Kiss to Build a Dream on" performed by Louis Armstrong and his band. The Mick also manages to pound out some sounds on the skins in between getting beat up by gangster Sonny Johnson’s thugs, and the police fitting him for Sonny’s murder.

The jazz musician and mystery riff is picked up in late ‘50s TV’s Johnny Staccato starring John Cassavetes. He’s a pianist down in the Village in New York who also does some PI work on the side. According to Kevin Burton Smith’s all-knowing thrilling detective website, the episodes featured jazz numbers from the Pete Candoli combo, featuring musicians Ray Brown, Barney Kessel and Red Norvo.

Jazz as the arbiter of mood and expressing anxious to cool undercurrents is particularly sharp in that same era’s more successful TV show, Peter Gunn. Gunn, personified by Craig Stevens, dressed Brooks Brothers sedate, but hung out at a jazz club called Mothers in an unnamed city somewhere along the fog-enshrouded docks.

The epitome of Gunn’s world is heard in the theme from Peter Gunn by Henry Mancini which has become world famous. Versions by the likes of electronic rockers Emerson, Lake & Palmer, surf guitarist Dick Dale and a scat version by Sarah Vaughn have been done among many others. Jazz drummer Shelly Mann & His Men Play Peter Gunn CD reissue captures the reserved hipness and vibe with original numbers down from the series such as "Sorta Blue," "Fallout," and "Dreamsville."

Several novelists -- Julie Smith’s cop Skip Langdon, Barry Eisner’s professional assassin John Rain and John Harvey’s British copper Charlie Resnick to name three, incorporate jazz and its milieu into their characters’ lives. As Harvey has said about what Resnick listens to, "It gives the reader a sense of that [the protagonist] is hearing...and draws the connection between [his] appreciation of that experience with his understanding of people and their emotions, the things they feel and do – criminals as well as victims of crime."

In the books by Bill Moody, who is also a jazz drummer, his character Evan Horne is a pianist whose mysteries plunge him into the myths and lore of jazz. Moody’s Looking for Chet Baker is about the search for the truth of was Baker pushed or fell, maybe while high, from a hotel window in Holland. Horne works with a Fletcher Paige (a composite character), an ex-sideman with Count Basie to investigate the matter. Other jazz greats Wardell Gray, Clifford Brown, and Charlie Parker have figured as the axis for Moody’s evocative and engaging stories.

Prolific writer and editor Robert Randisi edited the Murder and All That Jazz anthology. The aforementioned Moody and Smith had tales in this collection as did the likes of Michael Connelly, John Lutz and Les Roberts. Nor has jazz died out on the screen since those days of ‘60s jazzy scores done by Lalo Schifrin and Quincy Jones for TV shows "Mannix," "Ironside" and "Mission Impossible," and films "Bullitt," "Dollars," "Dirty Harry" and "In the Heat of the Night."

The 2002 film "Salton Sea," begins with gut shot Val Kilmer as Danny Parker playing a forlorn number on his horn as the building he’s in burns around him. He tells us in voice over to hang on, don’t be too sure you know what’s going on yet. The bulk of the film plays out in flashback. We learn that using an assumed name, Danny goes way undercover as a tweaker, a meth head. He’s on a deadly hunt that takes him around the bend, and drops him dying into that room when we first encounter him. The soundtrack is a combination of several styles, with jazz numbers "Saeta" written by Gil Evans and performed by trumpeter Terence Blanchard and "Brand New Wagon," written by Count Basie and Jimmy Rushing, and performed by Basie (who also wrote the "M Squad Theme") spicing up the mix.

As Lee Marvin, who played Lt. Frank Ballinger in "M Squad" wrote in the liner notes about the music from his show conducted by the Stanley Wilson band, "They help communicate our message to the audience while creating in their own special art form."

Dig that.

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Gary Phillips listened to "Shelly Mann and His Men Play Peter Gunn" and "Crime Jazz: Music in the Second Degree" compilation while writing this piece.