Milt Raskin

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Milton "Milt" Raskin (born January 27, 1916 in Boston , † October 16, 1977 in Los Angeles ) was an American pianist , songwriter and arranger in the fields of jazz , exotic music and film music .

Life

Milt Raskin first learned the saxophone as a child and switched to piano at the age of eleven. In the 1930s he studied at the New England Conservatory of Music and then worked at a local radio station in the Boston area before moving to New York City , where he played with Wingy Manone in 1937 and with Gene Krupa and His Orchestra in 1938/39 . Then he belongs to the bands of Teddy Powell and Alvino Rey , before he worked briefly again at Krupa ; from 1942 to 1944 he played in the orchestra of Tommy Dorsey (" I'll Never Smile Again "). He then moved to Los Angeles , where he only occasionally played with jazz musicians, such as in 1945 at a Jazz at the Philharmonic with Billie Holiday , Howard McGhee and Charles Mingus and with Artie Shaw and Georgie Auld ; He worked full-time as a studio musician and musical director at MGM and later at Capitol . In 1945 he recorded the 78 “Nola” with his Milt Raskin's Hollywood Ragtimers . In the course of his career he has also worked as a pianist on recordings of Ziggy Elman , Jimmy Mundy , Anita O'Day and Charlie Ventura .

In the Hollywood studios, Raskin led ensembles for recordings by artists such as Peggy Lee , Nat King Cole , Vic Damone and worked as arranger with Bill Russo , Billy Strayhorn , André Previn , Nancy Wilson and Stan Kenton , on the production of Artistry in Voices and Brass (1963) he also acted as a songwriter. With some studio productions Raskin established himself as a representative of the Exotica style, heard on the albums Exotic Percussion (Kapu) (Crown) and Exotic Tahiti . He has also contributed to countless film and television music, for example for the series Gnadenlose Stadt and Auf der Flucht , for whose theme song "Somewhere in the Night" he wrote the lyrics, as well as with his arrangements for the soundtracks of Lawrence von Arabien (1962) and Michelangelo - Inferno and Ecstasy (1965).

Songs that Raskin contributed the lyrics to were "The Game of Love," composed by Armando Peraza , "Because I Love Him So" and "Boston Beans" by Peggy Lee, and "Lost in a Summer Night" by Andre Previn.

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personal data
SURNAME Raskin, Milt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Raskin, Milton (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz pianist, arranger and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH January 27, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Boston , Massachusetts, United States
DATE OF DEATH October 16, 1977
Place of death Los Angeles , California, United States