Bronisław Kaper

Bronislaw Kaper was a Polish-American composer of over 150 Hollywood film scores during the mid-20th century. Within the genre of jazz, he is known as the composer of the enduring standards Invitation and Green Dolphin Street. He was born in Warsaw in 1902 and started playing the piano when he was seven years old. He learned quickly and eventually studied piano and composition at the music conservatory in Warsaw. He also studied law at Warsaw University to satisfy his father's wishes. Kaper moved to Berlin after completing his schooling in the early 1920s, which at the time contained a thriving community of actors, musicians, and artists. A few years later he became acquainted with Austrian composer Walter Jurmann, and they worked as a team and collaborated on several occasions. Much of their success was due to the evolving film technology, which allowed for the addition of sound and created a huge demand for both composers and performers. However, as Nazi forces gained power in Berlin, Kaper and Jurmann fled to Paris in 1933, where they continued composing film scores and songs. After two years, their talents became known by Louis B. Mayer, the co-founder of MGM studios. Mayer offered Kaper and Jurmann a seven-year contract to compose film scores in the United States, which they accepted. The first American films that they collaborated on were A Night at the Opera, San Francisco, and A Day at the Races. Jurmann left the film industry after his contract with MGM expired, but Kaper continued working with the company. It was during this period when he composed music for the films Green Dolphin Street and Invitation. These themes became important jazz standards that have been recorded by countless artists, including Miles Davis, Bill Evans, and Tony Bennett. Toward the end of his contract with MGM, Kaper composed scores for Mutiny on the Bounty, and Lord Jim, which were some of his most expansive and ambitious works. In these scores he incorporated elements from foreign cultures such as Javanese Gamelan and Polynesian music. For many Americans, this was their first exposure to these exotic sounds. After composing the music for A Flea in Her Ear in 1968, Kaper transitioned to composing for TV, as pop music began replacing grandiose scores in movies. Before his retirement in 1974, he wrote the music for all 30 episodes of Arrest and Trial, and for The FBI, which ran for 219 episodes. He died from cancer in 1983 in Beverly Hills. ~ RJ Lambert, Rovi