Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Loonis McGlohon was born on September 29, 1921 in Ayden, North Carolina, and graduated from East Carolina University. After a spell in the Air Force during World War II, he played with the Jimmy Dorsey and Jack Teagarden orchestras and became involved with broadcasting in Charlotte, North Carolina, working as music director for radio and television.

An accompanist to many well-known singers that included Judy Garland, Mabel Mercer and Eileen Farrell. He co-hosted the Peabody Award-winning NPR radio series American Popular Song with his friend and collaborator, Alec Wilder. He also composed and wrote lyrics for several songs with Wilder.

For his hometown of Charlotte he wrote the music for The Hornet’s Nest, and in 1980, Frank Sinatra recorded two of his songs with Alec Wilder, South to a Warmer Place and A Long Night on the album She Shot Me Down. He received a commission to write a piece in celebration of North Carolina’s 400th birthday, which resulted in North Carolina Is My Home. a symphonic work. McGlohon was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 1999.

NationsBank Performance Place in Charlotte’s Spirit Square was named Loonis McGlohon Theatre in 1998, and the following year he was inducted into the North CArolina Music Hall of Fame. A 2004 biography, Loonis! Celebrating a Lyrical Life by Jerry Shinn was published posthumously by the East Carolina University Foundation in 2004. Pianist and songwriter Loonis McGlohon passed away  at the age of 80 following a long-term battle with lymphoma on January 26, 2002.

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