Hall Overton

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Hall Overton (* 23. February 1920 in Bangor , Michigan ; † 24. November 1972 in New York City , New York) was an American jazz - pianist , arranger , composer and music educator .

Live and act

Overton grew up in Grand Rapids , Michigan and studied from 1940 to 1942 at the "Chicago Musical College" and - interrupted by military service in World War II, where he got to know jazz - from 1947 to 1951 at the New York Juilliard School (composition with Vincent Persichetti ) and in 1953 with Darius Milhaud . He composed chamber music and a symphony , but since 1946 has also occupied himself with jazz, played as a pianist on recordings by Teddy Charles , Stan Getz , Phil Woods , Duke Jordan , Oscar Pettiford and Jimmy Raney .

Thelonious Monk commissioned him to orchestrate some of his pieces for big band; they were performed live in New York's Town Hall on February 28, 1959 and appeared under the title The Thelonious Monk Orchestra at Town Hall . His collaboration with Monk was recorded by photographer W. Eugene Smith in image and sound documents that were published in the Jazz Loft Project in 2009 . Monk recorded another live album with orchestral arrangements by Hall Overton in New York's Lincoln Center in 1963 . It was published in 1964 under the title Big Band and Quartet in Concert .

In 1964 he composed the piece "Sonorities" for John Lewis and the Orchestra USA . In 1972 his opera "Huckleberry Finn" was performed by the Juilliard Opera Company a month before his death.

Hall Overton has also made a name for himself as a composer, teacher (students were Wendell Marshall , Mark Levine and Teddy Charles) and music theorist. He worked from the early 1950s at the Juilliard School of Music and also at the Yale School of Music and from 1962 at the New School for Social Research . In addition to well-known jazz musicians, the billionaire Doris Duke was one of his students. His loft on 6th Avenue was a popular hangout for jam sessions .

He was married to Nancy Swain since 1949 and had two sons; one is the comedian and actor Rick Overton .

Discographic notes

  • Teddy Charles: New Directions (OJC, 1951–53)
  • Jimmy Raney: A (OJC, 1954-55)
  • Laboratory Series ( Signal Records , 1955)
  • Stan Getz: Early Getz (OJC, 1949–53)

literature

swell

  1. ↑ after Nancy Overton, after Bohländer a. a. "Reclam's Jazz Guide" 1989 November 25th
personal data
SURNAME Overton, Hall
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz pianist, arranger, composer and music educator
DATE OF BIRTH February 23, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Bangor , Michigan
DATE OF DEATH November 24, 1972
Place of death New York City , New York