Manny Albam

Manny Albam , actually Emmanuel Albam (* 24. June 1922 in Samana , Dominican Republic ; † 2. October 2001 in Croton-on-Hudson , New York ) was a jazz - baritone saxophonist , bandleader, composer, arranger and music teacher.

Live and act

Albam came to New York as a child, attended high school in New York City and began playing the alto saxophone in 1940 before switching to the baritone. In the 1940s he worked a. a. with Muggsy Spanier (1941), Bob Chester (1942), Georgie Auld (1942 to 1945), Boyd Raeburn , Bobby Sherwood , Sam Donahue (1947), Herbie Fields and Charlie Barnet (1948/49). He tended towards swing and bebop and from 1950 worked as an arranger for big band leaders such as Count Basie , Stan Kenton and Woody Herman as well as a large number of smaller jazz formations such as Terry Gibbs' . He recorded a number of albums in the 1950s; the best known were the two albums The Jazz Greats of Our Time, Vol. 1 & 2 with Nick Travis , Art Farmer , Conte Candoli , Jack Sheldon , Harry Sweets Edison , Charlie Mariano , Bill Holman , Richie Kamuca , Pepper Adams , Gerry Mulligan , Hank Jones , Shelly Manne , created in two sessions each in New York and Los Angeles. His album Jazz New York , on which the young Bill Evans also participated, caused a sensation in the late 1950s .

In the later years he shifted his activities to teaching and film music. He taught at the Eastman School of Music. In 1966 he built the United Artists sub-label Solid State with Sonny Lester and Phil Ramone , which existed until 1969. After completing his teaching activities in the 1990s, he worked again as a composer and arranger. a. for Hank Jones and the Meridian String Quartet, the SDR Big Band in Stuttgart, Joe Lovano's project Celebrating Sinatra with chamber orchestra and for the singer Nancy Marano with the Dutch Metropole Orkest .

Discographic notes

• The Jazz Workshop (RCA, 1955) with Nick Travis , Joe Newman , Thad Jones , Urbie Green , Bob Brookmeyer , Hal McKusick , Al Cohn , Sol Schlinger , Milt Hinton
• The Drum Suite (RCA, 1956) with Hank Jones , Hal McKusick, Jimmy Cleveland , Bernie Glow
• The Blues is Everybody's Business (Gambit, 1955–57) with Bernie Glow , Phil Woods , Gene Quill , Eddie Costa , Nat Pierce , Billy Bauer
• Jazz Greats of Our Time (Lonehill Jazz, 1957/58)
• Jazz New York (Lonehill Jazz, 1959/59) with Donald Byrd , Frank Rehak , Jerome Richardson , Bill Evans , Dick Katz , Addison Farmer , Osie Johnson , Ed Shaughnessy
• Some New, Something Blue (1959)
• If You Could See Us Now (1999)

literature

• Carlo Bohländer , Karl Heinz Holler, Christian Pfarr: Reclam's Jazz Guide . 3rd, revised and expanded edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-15-010355-X .

Web links

• Portrait on All About Jazz
• Entry at JAZZHOUSE.org
• Review of the album The Drum Suite at All about Jazz
• Feature at Jazzwax (2010)
• Obituary in the Guardian
• Manny Albam at Discogs (English)