Somewhere In Time

A Gift of Music from the Past...

by Miff Crommelin

Elsewhere in these pages I wrote something about the film, "Somewhere in Time". Because of my fondness for this movie and its melodic soundtrack, I contacted Paul Cook, a composer/writer/screen actor in the U.S. who happened to play a minor role in the film. [Paul Cook is 'Doctor Hull' who pronounces Richard Collier (Christopher Reeve) 'dead' at the end of the movie.] Paul had also produced a music CD of original compositions called "Is It You..?" inspired by his work on the film "Somewhere In Time". Is It You? The title of the CD recalls a memorable line spoken by Jane Seymour to Christopher Reeve. This CD, expertly played by pianist Kent Wehman and a few other talented musicians, quickly became a favourite of mine. Several more emails were exchanged during which time Paul kindly sent me several books and another music CD which he had authored. Paul Cook, now deceased / Ed Crommelin, about 1938 About a year after my first contact with him, I happened to prepare an anthology of my father's involvement with the early Dutch jazz scene in the 1920's-30's for presentation on our family's historical website. At the bottom of the webpage, recalling my father's Jazz Years, I inserted an active link to a 'demo recording' called "Misty Mood" that my father recorded in 1938 on a primitive home-recording apparatus. This track was played by the composer, Boris Lensky Jr., a friend of my father who happened to be a Jew and who died a few years later in a German concentration camp. His father, Boris Lensky Sr. apparently was a notable violinist in Holland who made several recordings [viewable on YouTube] and also a film in 1914 about a violinist with a Stradivarius. Boris Lensky Sr. (1883-1972) I remember my father playing this scratchy old 78 rpm home recording and lamenting what a shame it was for such a promising talent to have been snuffed out before it could fully blossom and mature. To my knowledge the sampler bore no fruit and all that remained of Boris Lensky Jr. and "Misty Mood" was this obscure unfinished demo recording. After not hearing from Paul Cook for some time, I emailed him again, drawing his attention to Boris Lensky's unfinished composition on our website. Impressed with what he heard, Paul made plans to introduce the tune to Kent Wehman, his pianist, and this culminated in a professional re-recording of "Misty Mood" on September 29, 2007. Kent Wehman expanded the sampler therefore the credits now belong to Lensky-Wehman for the new composition. Thus, nearly 70 years after my father's vain effort to bring a forgotten Jewish composer's music to the world, a new opportunity has presented itself, thanks to the kindness of Paul Cook and Kent Wehman. What will become of this track, nobody knows. Perhaps it will be used in some way to benefit the U.S. Holocaust Museum as a tribute to a young forgotten pianist and composer who still manages to reach out and touch others Somewhere in Time. "Misty Mood" Sampler, (Boris Lensky 1938) / 2007 Version (Kent Wehman Take 1) / 2007 Version (Kent Wehman Take 2)

Paul Cook interview regarding 'Somewhere In Time' movie