{"id":8511,"date":"2016-05-28T13:33:33","date_gmt":"2016-05-28T13:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=8511"},"modified":"2017-06-20T13:40:42","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T13:40:42","slug":"krakow-film-music-festival-wars-kaper-deconstructed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=8511","title":{"rendered":"Krak\u00f3w Film Music Festival: Wars & Kaper: Deconstruction"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"warskaper<\/a><\/p>\n

By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

KRAK\u00d3W \u2013 The annual Krak\u00f3w Film Music Festival showed its adventurous side on May 26 with a fascinating programme of jazz interpretations of film music by treasured Polish composers Henryk Wars and Bronis\u0142aw Kaper by the Audiofeeling Trio, with deejay Mr. Krime, titled \u201cWars & Kaper: Deconstruction\u201d.<\/p>\n

Led by acclaimed Polish jazzman Pawe\u0142 Kaczmarczyk, the trio included\u00a0Jakub Dworak on double bass and David Fortuna on drums with input from the turntable of Mr. Krime. Passionate, intense and highly talented, the players performed a crowd-pleasing selection of cues and songs by the two composers from the Thirties, Forties, Fifties and Sixties.<\/p>\n

Henryk Wars, who was born in Warsaw in 1902 and died in 1977 aged 76, was a prolific composer who was drafted into the Polish Army at the outbreak of World War II. Taken as a prisoner of war by the German Army, he managed to escaped. He emigrated to the United States in 1947, changed his name to Henry Vars, and wrote songs for stars such as Doris Day, Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore. He composed the score and title song for the \u201cFlipper\u201d movie and TV series and for \u201cDaktari\u201d.\"KFMF-2016<\/a><\/p>\n

Bronislau Kaper, who also was born in 1902, died 1983 aged 81. He studied in Warsaw, went to Berlin in the 1920s and then Paris and in 1935 was offered a seven-year contract by Louis B. Mayer at MGM. He wrote the music for nearly 150 Hollywood movies including Orson Welles\u2019s \u201cThe Stranger\u201d (1946), John Huston\u2019s \u201cThe Red Badge of Courage\u201d (1951), Richard Brooks\u2019s \u201cThe Brothers Karamazov\u201d (1958), and Brooks\u2019s \u201cLord Jim\u201d (1965) starring Peter O\u2019Toole.<\/p>\n

Nominated three times for the Academy Award, Kaper won the Oscar for best music for Charles Walters\u2019s musical drama\u00a0 \u201cLili\u201d (1953), which starred Leslie Caron and Mel Ferrer. He also composed the theme and music for the long-running Warner Bros. crime show \u201cThe F.B.I.\u201d, which ran on ABC-TV 1965-1974 starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr.<\/p>\n

In a 90-minute concert in the Theatre Hall at the ICE Krak\u00f3w Congress Centre, Kaczmarczyk and his group ran through four Wars compositions: \u201cAlong the Milky Way\u201d from the war drama \u201cWielka Droga\u201d (1946), directed by Michal Waszynski; \u201cOh Sleep My Love\u201d from the comedy \u201cPawe\u0142 and Gawe\u0142\u201d (1938), directed by Mieczyslaw Krawicz; and \u201cYou Won\u2019t Forget Me\u201d and \u201cMister John\u201d from the romantic musical \u201cForgotten Melody\u201d (1938), directed by Jan Fethke and Konrad Tom.<\/p>\n

The Kaper pieces were: \u201cInvitation\u201d (which has become a jazz standard) from the drama \u201cInvitation\u201d (1952), directed by Gottfried Reinhardt and starring Van Johnson, Dorothy McGuire and Ruth Roman; \u201cNinon\u201d from the drama \u201cTout pour l\u2019amour\u201d (1933), directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot and Joe May; \u201cAll God’s Chillun Got Rhythm\u201d from the Marx Bros. comedy \u201cA Day at The Races\u201d (1937), directed by Sam Wood, and performed in the movie by Ivie Anderson, Harpo Marx and the Crinoline Choir;\u00a0and \u201cFollow Me\u201d from \u201cMutiny on the Bounty\u201d (1962), directed by Lewis Milestone and starring Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard.<\/p>\n

It must be said that the visually exciting show was very well received by the packed audience and there was no doubting the calibre of the performers as\u00a0each showed in several solos. The intensity of the players and constant repitition,\u00a0 however, began to overwhelm the individuality of the pieces as if they were channeling Dave Brubeck\u2019s \u201cBlue Rondo \u00e0 la Turk\u201d over and over. It started to seem that if you\u2019d heard one Wars or Kaper track then you\u2019d heard them all, which is very much not the case.<\/p>\n

The audience applauded the contributions of the deejay although this viewer found the constant turntable scratching an irritant. At first, it seemed he might add illuminating dialogue and Foley sounds from the old pictures in the manner of Ry Cooder\u2019s \u201cChavez Ravine\u201d, but it wasn\u2019t to be.<\/p>\n

Only once, as the trio returned for an encore, and performed did the playing let in some air so that the true\u00a0personality of a Kaper song could be appreciated.\u00a0It was\u00a0\u201cWhile My Lady Sleeps\u201d from the musical comedy \u201cChocolate Soldier\u201d(1941), directed by Roy Del Ruth and sung in the film by Nelson Eddy.<\/p>\n

I could have listened to that all night.<\/p>\n

The festival runs through May 31.<\/p>\n

Photo: Wojciech Wandzel<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett KRAK\u00d3W \u2013 The annual Krak\u00f3w Film Music Festival showed its adventurous side on May 26 with a fascinating programme of jazz interpretations of film music by treasured Polish composers Henryk Wars and Bronis\u0142aw Kaper by the Audiofeeling … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1694,8,14],"tags":[4317,4316,4315,4314,4121,4171,4318],"class_list":["post-8511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-krakow-film-music-festival","category-music","category-reviews","tag-audiofeeling-trio","tag-bronislau-kaper","tag-henry-vars","tag-henryk-wars","tag-ice-krakow-congress-centre","tag-krakow-film-music-festival","tag-pawel-kaczmarczyk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8511"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9127,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8511\/revisions\/9127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}