Bill Russo

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William Joseph "Bill" Russo, Jr. (born June 25, 1928 in Chicago , Illinois ; † January 11, 2003 ibid) was an American jazz musician ( trombone , piano ), composer and arranger .

Live and act

Russo went to high school with Lee Konitz and then studied law. From 1943 to 1947 he took private lessons from Lennie Tristano . He first played in the groups of Billie Rogers and Clyde McCoy before founding the Ensemble Experiments in Jazz in 1947 . Between 1950 and 1955 he worked as a trombonist and arranger for Stan Kenton , whose sound he played a decisive role in this phase, such as on the album New Concepts of Artistry in Rhythm from 1952. In 1955 he worked in Europe with his own quintet, Hans Koller and Kurt Edelhagen belonged. From the mid-1950s onwards, Russo became increasingly active as a music teacher, first at the Lenox School of Jazz , then from 1959 to 1961 at the Manhattan School of Music . He also worked for local groups before putting together a large orchestra in 1958.

From the early 1960s onwards, Russo concentrated on composing symphonic works, operas and ballet music . There were projects with Leonard Bernstein , Yehudi Menuhin , Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie . As a composer he used the possibilities of the third stream and used classical techniques in jazz (e.g. counterpoint, adopting large formal models) and style elements of jazz in works of the classical period. In 1965 he went to Columbia College in Chicago as head of the Contemporary American Music program , where he founded the Chicago Jazz Ensemble, which initially existed until 1968 and was revived in 1991, as one of the first repertory orchestras in the jazz field. Between 1975 and 1979 he stopped teaching to work for the film studios. In 1990 he finished his professorship in Chicago. One of his best known composition students is the film composer John Barry .

Russo has written several textbooks, such as the Composing for Jazz Orchestra (Chicago 1961) and Jazz Composition and Orchestration (Chicago 1968).

Discography

  • Shelly Manne / Bill Russo: Deep People (Savoy MG 12045, 1951/52)
  • Bill Russo and the Hans Koller Quintet ( Mod Records 1956; BMLP 06020)

Awards

For his album Street Music he received the Grand Prix du Disque in 1977 ; He was also awarded a Grammy for Lifetime Achievement.

Web links and source

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ the LP is divided into two parts: page 1 contains 2 sessions about Shelly Manne from November 12, 1951 and January 7, 1952 (Bill Russo also plays the trombonist in the November session and wrote the title The Count On Rush Street ); Page 2 contains 7 pieces by the Bill Russo Orchestra (with 19 musicians), recorded on August 15, 1951: An Esthete On Clarke St., Cathy, Cookie, Sposin´, Ennul, Gloomy Sunday, Vignette
personal data
SURNAME Russo, Bill
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Russo, William Joseph Jr.; Russo, Bill junior (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician, composer and arranger
DATE OF BIRTH June 25, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago , Illinois
DATE OF DEATH January 11, 2003
Place of death Chicago , Illinois