Harold Arlen

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Harold Arlen, photographed by Carl van Vechten , 1960

Harold Arlen (born February 15, 1905 as Hyman Arluck in Buffalo , New York , USA , † April 23, 1986 in New York City ) was an American light music composer .

Life

The child of Celia Arluck, née Orlin, and Samuel Arluck, a Chasan , learned to play the piano and formed a band in his youth. He achieved local success as a pianist and singer and moved to New York in the early 1920s , where he gave himself the stage name Harold Arlen (aurally derived from his mother's maiden name). Here he recorded records with the Buffalodians ( Deep Henderson , 1926) and the orchestras of Red Nichols , Henny Hendrickson and Arnold Johnson .

In 1929 he wrote his first hit Get Happy (text: Ted Koehler ). Early to mid-1930s composed Arlen and Koehler music for shows of the famous Harlem Cotton Club , Broadway - musicals and Hollywood musical films. Arlen also continued to play successfully, mostly on records, with Leo Reisman's Society Dance Orchestra.

Arlen's compositions are popular with jazz musicians because they combine a light blues feeling with traditional American folk music.

Arlen married in the 1930s and increasingly spent his time in California, composing music for film musicals and working with lyricist EY Harburg . In 1938 she signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to compose the music for the film The Wizard of Oz (The Wizard of Oz) . For his most famous song Over the Rainbow they were awarded the Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song (Oscar) in 1940 .

In the 1940s, Arlen worked with lyricist Johnny Mercer and created hits like Blues in the Night (My Mama Done Tol 'Me) , and Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive .

One of the many artists who recorded his songs is the First Lady of Jazz Ella Fitzgerald , who dedicated an album of 24 of his compositions to Arlen in 1961 as part of her Song Books series . Some critics rate this work as one of their best recordings. In the same year Oscar Peterson and Tony Bennett each recorded a song cycle with Arlen compositions.

In 1966, Arlen recorded the album Harold Sings Arlen (With Friend) and asked Barbra Streisand as a guest star in the studio. She sang with Arlen Ding-Dong! The Witch is Dead in a duet and House of Flowers as a solo. The singer later named him America's best composer alongside George Gershwin. At least one Arlen composition can be found on each of Streisand's first four albums. There are even five on The Second Barbra Streisand album .

Works (selection)

Songs

Arlen and Koehler wrote among others:

  • Get happy
  • Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
  • I love a parade
  • I've Got the World On A String
  • I gotta right to sing the blues
  • I'll wind
  • Stormy Weather

Songs with lyrics by Johnny Mercer :

Other famous songs:

Musicals and musical revues

  • 1931: You Said It - with Jack Yellen
  • 1934: Life Begins at 8:40 - text by Ira Gershwin / EY Harburg
  • 1937: Hooray For What! - Text by EY Harburg
  • 1944: Bloomer Girl - Text by EY Harburg
  • 1946: St. Louis Woman - Text by Johnny Mercer
  • 1954: House of Flowers - text by Truman Capote
  • 1957: Jamaica - Text by EY Harburg
  • 1959: Saratoga - text by Johnny Mercer

Film musicals

literature

  • Ken Bloom: American Song. The Complete Musical Theater Companion: 1877-1995 . Schirmer Books, New York 1996.
  • Colin Larkin (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of Popular Music . Macmillan, New York 1998.
  • Harry MacKenzie: The Directory of the Armed Forces Radio Services Series . Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut 1999.
  • Walter Rimler: The Man That Got Away: The Life and Songs of Harold Arlen , Urbana; Chicago; Springfield: University of Illinois Press, 2015, ISBN 978-0-252-03946-1

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ https://www.allmusic.com/album/sings-the-harold-arlen-song-book-mw0000014433
  2. ↑ http://www.jazzecho.de/aktuell/news/artikel/article:243308/entstaubte-meisterwerke-ellas-song-books-kommen-als-hi-res-ealben
  3. ↑ https://www.discogs.com/Oscar-Peterson-Plays-The-Harold-Arlen-Song-Book/release/7164447
  4. ↑ https://www.discogs.com/Tony-Bennett-Sings-A-String-Of-Harold-Arlen/master/651415
  5. ↑ http://barbra-archives.com/record/albums/harold_sings_arlen.html
  6. ↑ http://barbra-archives.com/record/albums/second_streisand_album.html
personal data
SURNAME Arlen, Harold
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Arluck, Hyman (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American composer, Oscar winner for "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"
DATE OF BIRTH February 15, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Buffalo , New York
DATE OF DEATH April 23, 1986
Place of death New York City