Skating in Central Park is an instrumental jazz composition by John Lewis (1920-2001), pianist and musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet. Lewis composed, arranged and conducted the score for Robert Wise's 1959 film noir Odds Against Tomorrow, starring Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan and Ed Begley. The piece is track 9 on the soundtrack album released by United Artists in 1959. It was recorded in New York in July 1959 with a 22-piece orchestra, and the session also featured Milt Jackson, Percy Heath, Connie Kay, Bill Evans on piano and Jim Hall on guitar. One review called the score a superb jazz score, describing the piece as dark, dynamic and a classic, and said that the Modern Jazz Quartet later turned it into a hit. The group made it a permanent part of its repertoire, with a version from 1960. Evans and Hall recorded it on the album Undercurrent in 1962. Lewis's music was also reused for a similar scene in the 1971 film Little Murders.
