Ralph Burns

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Charlie Ventura , Curley Russell , Bill Harris , Ralph Burns (right), and Dave Tough, Three Deuces , New York, circa April 1946.
Photograph by William P. Gottlieb .

Ralph Burns (born June 29, 1922 in Newton , Massachusetts , † November 21, 2001 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American composer , arranger , band leader and jazz pianist .

Live and act

Ralph Burns learned the piano at an early age and from 1938 attended the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston . His first experiences with jazz came from transcribing records by Count Basie , Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington (for arrangements for local bands) and from Frances Wayne and her brother Nick Jerrett, with whom he stayed as a student and the big band singer or were band leaders. In the early 1940s he moved to New York City , where he arranged for Charlie Barnet and from 1944 for Woody Herman and took over the piano part in the rhythm section of the band (which still consisted of bassist Chubby Jackson and drummer Dave Tough ). He remained connected to Herman's band for 15 years. There he arranged and composed several hits such as Nortwest Passage , Bijou (for trombonist Bill Harris ), Apple Honey and Early Autumn (interpreted by Stan Getz ). He also played in smaller combos with sidemen from Herman such as Bill Harris or Charlie Ventura . In the 1950s he also recorded and recorded under his own name. a. with Billy Strayhorn , Lee Konitz , Ben Webster , and wrote compositions for Johnny Mathis and Tony Bennett . He later arranged for Ray Charles (string orchestra in Georgia on My Mind and Come Rain or Come Shine ), Aretha Franklin , Natalie Cole .

In the 1960s he began arranging for Broadway , in musicals such as Chicago (by John Kander ), Funny Girl , No, No, Nanette and Sweet Charity . He started working for the film in 1971, first on the soundtrack of Bananas with Woody Allen . In 1972 he received an Oscar for arrangement in John Kander's Cabaret , directed by Bob Fosse . The soundtracks for Lenny followed in 1974 (with Dustin Hoffman as Lenny Bruce ) and in 1977 for New York, New York by Martin Scorsese , in which Robert De Niro plays a jazz musician alongside cabaret star Liza Minnelli . Burns wrote in another collaboration with director Bob Fosse also the music for Behind the Limelight , for which he received another Oscar in 1979, followed in 1982 by an Oscar nomination for Annie . In the 1990s he also arranged for Mel Tormé , John Pizzarelli and Michael Feinstein . He died in 2001 of complications from a stroke and pneumonia.

Burns received an Emmy Award for Baryshnikov on Broadway in 1980 with Ian Fraser and Billy Byers, and Tony Awards for Fosse in 1999 and posthumously in 2002 for Thoroughly Modern Millie .

Ralph Burns was inducted into the New England Jazz Hall of Fame in 2004 . He is one of the few artists to have won an Oscar, a Grammy, an Emmy and a Tony at the same time.

Discography

(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 .
  • The free forms of Ralph Burns , 1950
  • Jazz Recital , 1951
  • Ralph Burns among the JATP's , 1955
  • Ralph Burns , 1955
  • Jazz Studio 5 , 1955
  • Bijou , 1955
  • Spring Sequence , 1955
  • The songs of Billie Holiday , 1956
  • The Masters revisited , 1957
  • Very warm for Jazz , 1958
  • Porgy and Bess , 1958
  • The Swinging Seasons , 1958
  • New York's a Song , 1960
  • Swingin 'down the Lane , 1962
  • Where there's Burns, there's fire , 1962
  • No strings (with strings) , 2002

Filmography

Web links