Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Claus Ogerman, born Klaus Ogermann on April 29, 1930 in Ratibor (Racibórz), Upper Silesia, Germany is now part of Poland. He began his career with the piano but became one of the most prolific arrangers of the 20th century.
In the 1950s, Ogerman worked in Germany as an arranger-pianist with Kurt Edelhagen, saxophonist and bandleader Max Greger, and Delle Haensch. He also worked as a part-time vocalist and recorded several 45 rpm singles under the pen name of Tom Collins, duetting with Hannelore Cremer. He also recorded a solo vocal with the Delle Haensch Jump Combo.
Moving to the United States in 1959, Claus joined producer Creed Taylor at Verve Records, working on recordings with many artists. During this time he also arranged many pop hits, and in 1967 joined Creed Taylor on the A&M/CTi label. Ogerman charted under his own name in 1965 with the RCA single Watusi Trumpets.
In 1980 Ogerman won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement for Soulful Strut and the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists for Quiet Nights. He composed music for seventeen movies, recorded fifteen albums, and released a compilation in 2002.
He arranged and conducted an impressive 58 albums with George Benson, Solomon Burke, Donald Byrd, Betty Carter, Sammy Davis Jr., Bill Evans, Connie Francis, Michael Franks, Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto, João Gilberto, João Donato, Lesley Gore, Stephane Grappelli, Al Hirt, Billie Holiday, Johnny Hodges, Freddie Hubbard, Willis Jackson, Cal Tjader, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Dr. John, Wynton Kelly, Ben E. King, Diana Krall, Wes Montgomery, Danilo Perez, Oscar Peterson, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Smith, Barbra Streisand, Cal Tjader, Mel Tormé, Stanley Turrentine, and Kai Winding.
Having worked in the jazz, top 40, rock, pop, R&B, soul, easy listening, Broadway and classical music fields, it has never been determined the exact number of recording artists for whom he has either arranged or conducted during his career. Arranger, conductor, and composer Claus Ogerman,transitioned on March 8, 2016
More Posts: arranger,bandleader,composer,conductor,history,instrumental
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Hymie Schertzer was born Herman Schertzer on April 22, 1909 in New York City, New York and began playing violin when he was nine years old. He picked up the saxophone when he was a teenager and went on to work as a sideman for Gene Kardos at the club Birdland, then joined Benny Goodman’s band, where he was the lead saxophonist until 1938, though he recorded with Goodman intermittently until the mid-1940s.
Between 1938 and 1940 Hymie was in Tommy Dorsey’s band, and recorded in the late 1930s with Bunny Berigan and Lionel Hampton. He worked with Billie Holiday in 1941 and again in 1944, then became a house musician for NBC radio and television.
Working as a session player for studio recordings Schertzer was behind Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Sy Oliver, Louis Armstrong, and Artie Shaw during the years 1947-1953. He continued working with Goodman live, on television, and on record from 1951 until 1969.
Saxophonist and conductor Hymie Schertzer, who was a member of the Tonight Show Band during its Johnny Carson era, transitioned in New York City, on March 22, 1977 at the age of 67.
More Posts: conductor,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Max Greger was born on April 2, 1926 in Munich, Germany. In 1948 at 22 he founded his first sextet with acclaimed musicians, including Hugo Strasser. By 1959 he became the first western orchestra to tour the Soviet Union.
1963 saw Max putting together a top orchestra for ZDF, which for years supported all the major TV shows. He was honored with the Officers Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Bavarian Order of Merit, and has a memorial plaque with his handprints and signature in Berlin-Mitte.
Saxophonist, conductor and big bandleader Max Greger, who recorded over 150 records in jazz and pop music, transitioned on August 15, 2015 in his hometown.
More Posts: bandleader,conductor,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Elliott Lawrence was born Elliott Lawrence Broza on February 14, 1925 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents were radio and television variety show pioneers who created and produced the long running Horn and Hardart Children’s Hour.
Growing up in this show business environment, Lawrence began studying piano at the age of three. His first public performance was at age four conducting the orchestra on the Children’s Hour stage show. At six he wrote his first composition, Falling Down Stairs, and was stricken with polio, from which he recovered. By the age of 12, he had formed his first band, a 15-piece unit called The Band Busters, and began doing club dates on the weekends. Finishing high school at age 16 he entered the University of Pennsylvania. During his junior year his band, now named The Elliot Broza Orchestra, began playing college proms around the state. At Penn, majoring in symphonic conducting under Harl McDonald, he was offered the position as assistant conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra upon graduation.
Changing his name to Elliot Lawrence when he became the music director of WCAU’S House Band in 1945, they premiered on the radio as The Elliot Lawrence Orchestra. From 1946 to 1954, the band toured around the United States year round, while recording for Decca, Columbia, RCA, Fantasy, and Vik records. In 1949, the band performed a three-week stint with the Nat King Cole Trio at the Paramount Theater in New York City, during which time it recorded Gerry Mulligan’s Elevation, later named “one of the top 50 best jazz recordings of the 20th century” by the Smithsonian Institution.
Landing in New York City in 1955 as the big band era came to a close, he began to do radio shows such as The Red Buttons show, the Jack Sterling Show and hosted Melody Street. He went to the Soviet Union with Ed Sullivan, met Gower Champion and became his musical director on his Bye Bye Birdie, which garnered him a Tony nomination. After 1960, Lawrence gave up jazz and began composing and arranging for television, film, and stage. He won the Tony Award for his second show, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in 1962. This led to a 16-year career as a Broadway Conductor and musical director and later to his almost 50-year career as the “go to” conductor for big television events and specials.
As a composer, he scored the movies Network and The French Connection, won nine Emmy awards for musical direction, and was music director for the TonyAwards. Pianist, bandleader and conductor Elliott Lawrence transitioned on July 2, 2021 at the age of 96 in Manhattan, New York.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Giorgio Gaslini born October 22, 1929 in Milan, Italy. He began performing aged 13 and recorded with his jazz trio at 16. In the 1950s and 1960s, He performed with his own quartet. He was the first Italian musician mentioned as a “new talent” in the Down Beat poll and the first Italian officially invited to a jazz festival in the USA New Orleans 1976-77.
He collaborated with leading American soloists, such as Anthony Braxton, Steve Lacy, Don Cherry, Roswell Rudd, Max Roach, but also with the Argentinian Gato Barbieri and Frenchman Jean-Luc Ponty. He also adapted the compositions of Albert Ayler and Sun Ra for solo piano, which the Soul Note label issued. He also composed the soundtrack of Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1961 La notte (The Night).
From 1991 to 1995, Gaslini composed works for Carlo Actis Dato’s Italian Instabile Orchestra, and was the first to teach jazz courses at the Santa Cecilia Academy of Music in Rome in 1972. In the Seventies he scored ten films between 1970 to 1977.
Pianist, composer and conductor Giorgio Gaslini, who composed symphonic works, operas, and ballets, passed away on July 29, 2014 at 84 in Borgo Val di Taro, Italy in the province of Parma.
More Posts: bandleader,composer,conductor,history,instrumental,jazz,music,piano