Komeda Tribute

Polish Cinema In Australia is proud to present a one-off musical concert in Melbourne in honour of Poland’s influential pianist and renowned film score composer, Krzysztof Komeda, to be performed by Adam Simmons Creative Music Ensemble, featuring revered pianist and music educator, Australia’s first godfather of jazz, Tony Gould.

Perhaps best known for his film compositions, Komeda wrote the scores for Roman Polanski’s films Knife in the Water (1962), Cul-de-sac (1966), The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967), and Rosemary’s Baby (1968). Komeda's album Astigmatic (1965) is widely regarded as one of the most important European jazz albums; British critic Stuart Nicholson describes the album as "marking a shift away from the dominant American approach with the emergence of a specific European aesthetic.”

His life was cut short in 1968 after moving to Los Angeles where he composed for “Rosemary’s Baby” (with one of his most recognizable compositions, "Rosemary's Lullaby" sung by Mia Farrow) and Buzz Kulik's "The Riot". Although there were several different accounts of what happened, according to Roman Polanski’s memoirs, Komeda had a tragic accident which led to a haematoma of the brain. Komeda was pushed off an escarpment by writer Marek Hlasko in a friendly rough and tumble during a drinking party. He fell down and suffered head injuries, and died in Warsaw four months later, never having regained consciousness.

Tony Gould is widely known as Australia’s first godfather of jazz, with an illustrious career that spans over 50 years. Composer, multi-instrumentalist and educator Adam Simmons’ has been involved across many different scenes within Melbourne and internationally, performing jazz, punk, new music, traditional Japanese honkyo-ku, funk and free noise/improv.

Adam Simmons Creative Music Ensemble first performed in 2004 at the Sydney Opera House for the Freedman Awards (which resulted in a Special Award from the Freedman Foundation for Adam). Since then the group has performed at Melbourne Jazz Fringe Festival, recorded by ABC FM at the Half Bent Music Festival, Festival Of Slow Music, Wentworth Arts Festival and for Adam’s two year concert series, “The Usefulness of Art” which received rave reviews. The aim is to bring together musicians of diverse backgrounds to make music that is meaningful and communicative regardless of genre.

This is a not-to-be-missed event for jazz aficionados and film buffs alike. Tickets are just $20 each and are on sale now.