Daily Dose Of Jazz…

George Handy, born George Joseph Hendleman on January 17, 1920 in New York City, where his musical beginnings were fostered under the tutelage of composer Aaron Copland.

He first worked professionally as a swing pianist for Michael Loring in 1938. Soon afterward George was drafted into the United States Army in 1940. Post WWII, from 1944 to 1946 he became a member of the Boyd Raeburn Orchestra, composing and performing on piano. This was during a time when many big bands were transforming their musical tendencies toward bebop. Leaving the orchestra briefly to work for Paramount Studios, he returned to Raeburn quickly. During this period he entered one of his most creative periods, doing arrangements of older standards with a distinctly bebop quality.

A rift between him and Raeburn, just as he was entering his prime, forced him to depart the group. Handy continued to arrange for other musicians in his later career.

Pianist, arranger and composer George Handy, best remembered in retrospect for his bebop arrangements, transitioned in Harris, New York, on January 8, 1997 at the age of 76, from heart disease.

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