The great Basil Poledouris!!!

Well heck, who is this guy? You ask?

Well.. its quite frankly *just* one heck of a music composer for movies.. such as FREE WILLY! 

In all my years on this planet and devotion to people like John Williams, Ennio Morricone, Van Gelis and so on.. I simply forgot this mister.. the composer of the soundtrack from Free willy.

When recently going to a play/musical piece with the kids in Bijloke Gent (called Moby Dick - played with various actors and the philharmonic orchestra) they did a little skit from Free willy too.. (what a nice little surprise) 

Just a little bit tearyeyed because of the feelings and the memories from this beloved movie.. (1993) and not to forget the first HUGE crush I had on THE boy... (yes Jason James Richter) I just adored you as a wee 9 year old and fancied you quite a bit.. but nevertheless.. you were too old for me in that time.. (almost 13 right?) 

When heard the iconic tunes from the movie, I wondered how many of the audience would have guessed it from this movie.. ! Back home, I googled it (again for the billionth time) and finally learned the truth about the composer of free willy. And i'm so much ashamed by it, not knowing earlier who it was.

Here is some back ground story for Basil Poledouris.. cos afterall - the score on free willy is quite unique, haunting, stunning and fantastic at the same time.. Gracious, exciting, adventurous,..  it reminds me of 80's tunes and off course killerwhales in general. He died almost 20 years ago.. but today he's remembered in his plays, pieces, movies and for now on this little blog. He is not forgotten.

Basil Konstantine Poledouris (/ˌpɒlɪˈdɔːrɪs/; August 21, 1945 – November 8, 2006) was an American composer, conductor, and orchestrator of film and television scores,^[1] best known for his long-running collaborations with directors John Milius and Paul Verhoeven. Among his works are scores for the films Conan the Barbarian (1982), Red Dawn (1984), Iron Eagle (1986), RoboCop (1987), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Free Willy (1993), Starship Troopers (1997) and Les Misérables (1998).

Poledouris won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited Series, Movie, or Special for his work on the four-part miniseries Lonesome Dove in 1989, and was a four-time recipient of the BMI Film Music Award.

So.. quite the impressive list huh?! Thank you for the music mr Poledouris. 

xxxx

Keiko aka Sara