“I want to write something new, something extraordinary and ...

“He was recording ‘No Church in the Wild’ in the Mercer Hotel,” says
Luhrmann, recalling how they came to work together. “Leonardo said to me, ‘Hey,
Jay’s up here, would you like to meet him?’ So, I came up and there’s Jay doing his
thing and I’m sitting there watching, thinking, ‘This is fun!’ And then we talked and I
showed my little reel about ‘Gatsby,’ and Jay said, ‘What are we talking about? Of
course we’ve gotta do this together!’”
“He’s a performer on several tracks, but also helped to define and guide the
musical arc of the film so that there’s a consistency of expression and point of view,”
states Monsted. “No Church in the Wild” is included on the film’s soundtrack, along
with JAY Z’s original track “100$ Bill.”
In addition to featuring his own music, and referencing jazz and hip hop, JAY
Z embraced Luhrmann’s desire to include a mash-up of musical genres. “We
seamlessly shifted different eras of music together,” JAY Z explains, “and that was
the real challenge.”
This meant recruiting a variety of influential artists, including Bryan Ferry;
Florence + The Machine; Lana Del Rey; London band The xx; Fergie with Q Tip and
GoonRock; Coco O. of Quadron; Gotye; Nero; Sia and Beyoncé and André 3000.
Artists such as The xx and Florence Welch even came to the scoring sessions in
London and recorded while watching the “Gatsby” footage, “to help tailor the song
to the emotion of the scene,” as Monsted explains. “I think when people see that in
the film they’re going to be surprised that it’s not just Florence singing a prerecorded
song; it’s very much Florence playing to picture and playing to the
emotion of the images.”
In addition to original tracks, moviegoers will also recognize covers of major
chart hits, such as Jack White’s cover of U2’s “Love Is Blindness,” and Beyoncé and
André 3000 collaborating on Amy Winehouse’s heartbreaking ballad “Back To
Black.”
“André 3000 and Beyoncé do a song together; it’s insane,” explains JAY Z.
“This album is amazing. It’s not going to be for the club, you know? It’s for driving
with the windows down. I suggest you buy a car for the soundtrack, or a bike—
something that moves.”
For the orchestral score for the film, Craig Armstrong adapted the melodies
from some of the main songs and wove them back into the narrative soundtrack,
guiding the audience’s emotional response.
26