Earl Zindars

Earl zindars (actually Earl Zindarsian, * 25. September 1927 in Chicago , † 15. August 2005 in San Francisco ) was an American jazz - composer and percussionist ( Timpanist ). Zindars became known for his compositions for Bill Evans such as Elsa and How My Heart Sings .

Live and act

Zindars grew up in Chicago in an Armenian family and studied at Northwestern University . After graduating, he went to New York. There he met the jazz singer Anne (Annig) Bohigian, his future wife, who played in a band called The Axidentials . Earl Zindars played the timpani there. Zindars later moved to San Francisco, where his life should be from now on. In the next few years he first played as a timpanist in the Golden Gate Park Band .

In his later career, Zindars worked for a long time with Bill Evans; the pianist recorded his compositions Elsa , Mother Of Earl and How my Heart Sings several times; the latter became a jazz standard . The pianist Bill Cunliffe dedicated his album How My Heart Sings (2003) exclusively to Zindars pieces. Compositions by Earl Zindars have also been recorded by Cannonball Adderley , Donald Byrd , Eddie Daniels , Philly Joe Jones , Dino Saluzzi , Tony Williams and other jazz musicians. Zindar has also composed music for classical orchestras and wind ensembles, which have been performed by various ensembles of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and wind ensembles around the world. His classical compositions are influenced by Maurice Ravel , Claude Debussy and Ralph Vaughan Williams .

Zindars taught composition, theory, percussion and jazz at San Francisco State University for six years .

Selection discography

• The Return - performed by The Don Haas Trio with Don Haas (p), Larry Grenadier (b), Scott Morris (dr) (Zindars Publishing, 1990)

Web links / sources

• Earl Zindars home page
• Earl Zindars - jazz, classical composer obituary in the San Francisco Chronicle on August 19, 2005