Mel Tormé

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Mel Tormé (1979)

Melvin Howard "Mel" Tormé (born September 13, 1925 in Chicago , Illinois , † June 5, 1999 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American singer in the field of jazz and pop music , who also worked as a drummer , composer , arranger , Author and actor appeared. His press agent coined for him the nickname The Velvet Fog (about "the velvet fog" ), which referred to Tormé's soft, supple baritone voice. His most famous composition is the Christmas classic The Christmas Song , which he wrote with Robert Wells.

biography

Mel Tormé, son of Russian immigrants, sang for several months with the Coon-Sanders Orchestra at the age of 4 . Like his colleagues Mickey Rooney and Sammy Davis Jr., he worked as a child star in radio series because he grew up in an active artistic environment. From the age of seven he switched to drums before trying again as a singer. He recorded his first record at the age of 15 with Harry James . In 1942 Ben Pollack brought him to the Chico Marx Orchestra . As a film actor Tormé made his debut in 1943 on the side of Frank Sinatra in the film Higher and Higher . Together with Les Baxter and Ginny O'Connor, shortly before his conscription to the US Army and then again in 1947, he formed the vocal group Mel-Tones ; first recordings were made for Jewell and Decca Records , after the Second World War for Musicraft Records , partly accompanied by Artie Shaw's orchestra. Carlos Gastel, who had already promoted the careers of Nat King Cole and Peggy Lee , brought him to Capitol Records and MGM , which featured him as a pop star; but after a few years Tormé decided to work with smaller labels and to lean more towards jazz again. This was followed by albums such as Musical Sounds Are the Best Songs for Coral in 1954 and It's a Blue World on Bethlehem . In the mid-1950s he played with Marty Paich in the band Mel Tormé with the Marty Paich Dektette ; they recorded four albums together, such as Mel Tormé Sings Fred Astaire (Bethlehem, 1956) and on Verve Tormé (1958), Back in Town (1959) and as the climax and re-union of the Mel-Tones finally Mel Tormé Swings Shubert Alley , where Paich and Tormé processed Broadway songs like Comden / Greens "Just in Time", "Too Darn Hot", Harold Arlen's "A Sleepin 'Bee" or Frank Loesser's "Once in Love with Amy". Her accompanying musicians included u. a. Art Pepper , Frank Rosolino , Red Callender, and Mel Lewis .

In 1963 and 1964, Tormé worked as a scribe for the Judy Garland Show , on which he also appeared. He later processed the experience in the book The Other Side of the Rainbow . In the 1960s, further productions with studio orchestras were created for Atlantic and Columbia . a. directed by Shorty Rogers or Al Porcino . Tormé began an intensive collaboration in the late 1970s with the pianist George Shearing and his band; from this time on he also wrote his own arrangements. In the 1980s he made a number of albums for Concord Jazz , among others. a. with the Rob McConnell Bigband. In 1988 he recorded the reunion album with West Coast musicians such as Bob Enevoldsen , Jack Sheldon and Pete Jolly .

In the 1990s he still worked with Cleo Laine ( Nothing Without You ) and Ken Peplowski ( Sing, Sing; Sing ); his last album was Velvet and Brass, recorded in July 1995 for Concord. In August 1996, Mel Tormé should have opened the Newport Jazz Festival with George Shearing. But the concert had to be canceled at the last second: Tormé had suffered a stroke. He should never recover from this: The singer could no longer perform live as a result.

Mel Tormé died on June 5, 1999 of complications from another stroke.

Mel Tormé in the 1940s.
Photo William P. Gottlieb .

Discographic notes

  • 1949: The Best of the Capitol Years (1949-52)
  • 1955: It's a Blue world (Bethlehem)
  • 1958: Tormé (Verve)
  • 1960: Swings Shubert Alley (Verve)
  • 1960: Swingin 'on the Moon (Verve)
  • 1960: Prelude to a Kiss (Fresh Sound, n. D.)
  • 1963: Sunday in New York (Atlantic)
  • 1982: An Evening with George Shearing & Mel Tormé (Concord)
  • 1986: Mel Tormé, Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass (Concord)
  • 1987: A Vintage Year (Concord)
  • 1995: Velvet and Brass (Concord)

7 "singles (selection)

Filmography (selection)

bibliography

  • The Other Side of the Rainbow (1970)
  • Wynner (1978)
  • It Wasn't All Velvet (1988)
  • Traps — The Drum Wonder: The Life of Buddy Rich (1991)
  • My Singing Teachers Reflections on Singing Popular Music (1994)

Awards

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Portrait (SpaceAgePop)

literature

Web links

Commons : Mel Tormé  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Tormé, Mel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Tormé, Melvin Howard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz singer and actor
DATE OF BIRTH September 13, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago , Illinois
DATE OF DEATH June 5, 1999
Place of death Los Angeles , California