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Posted: |
Apr 15, 2015 - 2:05 AM
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By: |
Thor
(Member)
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...r in the world. Damn those stupid headline limitations!
In any case, I wanted to (finally) do a thread on what is most likely the world's oldest working film composer, the 91-year-old Bent Fabricius-Bjerre from Denmark.
This year, he did the score for a new Danish animated film called ALBERT in collaboration with Frans Bak -- a fine, colourful score with some his trademark jazz and dixieland elements. But in Scandinavia, he is already a legend. Mostly for these titles:
* First is the OLSENBANDEN film series that has been running since the 60s (and which has its own version in Denmark, Norway and Sweden). Check out the theme here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knA_8etvono
* Second is the music for the Danish 'generation series' MATADOR (1978-1982), and its haunting, melancholic main theme. Check out a live performance from 2009 here, with Fabricius-Bjerre himself at the piano:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKtzsNRF-1s
* Third is the Norwegian puppet film FLÅKLYPA GRAND PRIX [PINCHCLIFFE GRAND PRIX] (1975), by many hailed as the greatest Norwegian film of all time. The main theme, "Reodor's Ballad", is about the most gorgeous theme I can think of. Here's a version with Norwegian harmonica player Sigmund Groven:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFhyev9G_Pg
* Finally, Bjerre might be familiar to international audiences through his 1960s mega-hit "Alley Cat", launched in the US under his stage name Bent Fabric:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmCsdqs-lLU
Anyways, that's just a brief sampling of some of his greatest hits. I just wanted to do a shout-out to this remarkable composer who is still going strong at an age when most men are....well, dead. 
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Someone should release that material. I think this lies with the Danish right holders.
I think so, yeah.
There have been some CD releases of his music:
http://www.fabricius-bjerre.dk/udgivelser/
....and also DVD's of the stuff he scored, if you click that link.
But still, there oughta be more 'pure' soundtracks.
Hey, everybody loved "Alley Cat" when I was a kid. Until this thread, I thought "Bent Fabric" was just some kind of screwy stage name the guy had cooked up in order to get noticed -- I don't remember anybody mentioning that the artist was Danish. He looks like a pretty cool guy, still going strong. Hats off to him. It'd be great to see some kind of official release of his work, and I'd buy a copy for sure.
After "Alley Cat" he recorded "The Happy Puppy" which was his take on "Chopsticks".
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His albums that were distributed in the U.S. by Atco always featured animals on the covers and he was actually featured on the cover of one album, "Relax With Bent Fabric". He even did an album with jazz clarinet Mr. Acker Bilk which featured a drawing of a cat and a piano on the cover. By the way, the original title for "Alley Cat" was "Around The Piano".
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