Johnny Richards

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(From below) Ralph Burns , Eddie Finckel , George Handy , Neal Hefti , Johnny Richards, and Eddie Sauter , Museum of Modern Art , New York, NY, circa March 1947.
Photograph by William P. Gottlieb .

Johnny Richards (* as Juan Ricardo Cascales on November 2, 1911 in Querétaro , Mexico ; † October 7, 1968 in New York ) was an American jazz arranger of modern jazz . He worked for Stan Kenton .

Live and act

Johnny Richards grew up in San Fernando, California . His career began in 1928 in a band in Philadelphia , then he went to Great Britain and wrote film music there. In the 1930s he was employed in the Hollywood studios, directed a dance orchestra from 1940–45. a. Pete Rugolo and Bob Graettinger belonged. From 1946 he worked as an arranger for Boyd Raeburn , Stan Kenton , Charlie Barnet , Dizzy Gillespie , Sarah Vaughan , Sonny Stitt and Helen Merrill . From 1958 to 1960 he also directed his own orchestra, in which u. a. Ben Webster , Julius Watkins , Ed Shaughnessy , Frank Rehak , Charli Persip , Jimmy Cleveland , Gene Quill , Hank Jones and Tom McIntosh played.

Richards will be remembered most for the boisterous Stan Kenton Big Band recordings in the 1950s. He arranged Kenton's Soliloquy (1950), Bags And Baggage, Prologue and Frank Speaking (1952); also for Boyd Raeburn the titles The Man With The Horn, Prelude To The Dawn and Soft And Warm (1946); Dizzy Gillespies recordings with strings from 1950 and 1954 and Sonny Stitt's Sancho Panza (1953).

His style is influenced by Duke Ellington and Pete Rugolo .

Discography (selection)

For Stan Kenton:

  • Cuban Fire (Capitol, 1956)
  • West Side Story (Capitol, 1961)
  • Young at Heart (Capitol, 1953)

As a leader

  • Wide Range (Creative World, 1957)
  • My Fair Lady / My Way (Roulette / Fresh Sound, 1964), u. a. with Bob McCoy
  • Mosaic Select (Mosaic, 2005)

literature

  • Carlo Bohländer , Karl Heinz Holler, Christian Pfarr: Reclam's Jazz Guide . 4th, revised and supplemented edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-15-010355-X .
  • Jack Hartley / Jürgen Wölfer, Johnny Richards, The Definitive Bio-Discography, Balboa Books, Lake Geneva, WI 1998

Remarks

  1. ↑ Johnny Richards at Allmusic (English)
personal data
SURNAME Richards, Johnny
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cascales, Juan Ricardo (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American modern jazz arranger
DATE OF BIRTH November 2, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Querétaro , Mexico
DATE OF DEATH 7th October 1968
Place of death New York City