Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Ray Ellis, born July 28, 1923 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania became a well-known record producer, arranger and conductor. In the 1950s and 60s he produced easy-listening sessions for RCA Victor, MGM an Columbia, recorded such well known works as a leader “Let’s Get Away From It All” and “Ellis In Wonderland”.

Ray arranged such works as “A Certain Smile” for Johnny Mathis, “Broken Hearted Melody” for Sarah Vaughan and “Standing On The Corner” for the Four Lads, but his best known jazz orchestration is Billie Holiday’s “Lady In Satin”. He would collaborate with Lena Horne, Emmy Lou Harris, Barbra Streisand, Harold Land, The Drifters, Connie Francis and others

Ellis’ work encompassed all areas of music, from records to film, commercials, and television. His television theme music credits include NBC News At Sunrise with Connie Chung, The Today Show and the original Spider-Man cartoon series.

From 1968 to 1982 Ellis along with Norman Prescott composed and arranged nearly all of the background music for cartoon studio Filmation, composed and conducted the music for Fantastic Voyage, The Hardy Boys, Flash Gordon, The Archie Show and Sabrina The Teenage Witch. He was responsible for  such game show themes such as Sale of the Century, Scrabble and Scattergories among others.

Ray Ellis prolific career ended with his death from complications from melanoma on October 27, 2008 in Encino, California.

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