Sy Oliver

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Sy Oliver, circa September 1946.
Photograph by William P. Gottlieb .

Melvin James "Sy" Oliver (born December 17, 1910 in Battle Creek , Michigan , † May 28, 1988 in New York City , New York ) was an American jazz trumpeter , arranger , composer , singer and band leader .

Live and act

Oliver is the son of musicians (music teacher, concert singer). With his father he learned to read music, to play the piano and trumpet. After graduating from high school, he worked in Territory bands of the Midwest, with Cliff Barnett and Zach Whytes Chocolate Beau Brummels as a musician and vocalist, where first recordings were made, later with Alphonse Trent . Between 1933 and 1939 he played and sang in Jimmie Lunceford's band and contributed many arrangements and their specific sound. At Lunceford, Oliver was responsible for successful titles such as "My Blue Heaven", "Ain't She Sweet", "Organ Grinder's Swing" and "'Tain't What You Do".

He then worked in the orchestra of Tommy Dorsey after the latter had lured him away from Lunceford with an offer to earn $ 5,000 a year. He played with Dorsey until 1943 and again from 1945, with one interruption with the US Army, where he led a military band, and was the first African American to play an important role in a "white" band. Oliver's arrangement of the " On the Sunny Side of the Street " standard became Dorsey's biggest hit. For some time Oliver also had his own jazz band, with which he also appeared on the radio. Since the late 1940s he worked as a freelance arranger, wrote for film and studio bands, mainly on behalf of singers such as Frank Sinatra , Sammy Davis, Jr. , Ella Fitzgerald , Chris Connor and Louis Armstrong ; whose "sacred" albums Louis and the Angels and Louis and the Good Book (1957/58) were primarily Oliver's work. In 1957 he was arranger and band leader of the album Plenty Valente! , one of the first international studio albums by Caterina Valente .

He also worked as a record producer for Decca Records and from 1959 worked as an arranger in the record studios. 1968/69 he worked as musical director of the Paris Olympia ; from 1970 he performed his old arrangements and Ellington compositions with his own band ; with the material was the 1973 album Yes Indeed . With his band he performed a. a. 1972 at the Newport Jazz Festival and made guest appearances in Europe in 1973, 1975 and 1981, including at the Berlin Jazz Days . From 1975 to 1980 he performed in the Rainbow Room in New York with an all-star band as a repertoire orchestra, for which he wrote over 300 arrangements of pieces by Ellington, Dorsey, Lunceford and Fletcher Henderson . Oliver was active until the 1980s. After his death from cancer in 1988, his widow bequeathed his manuscripts of the band arrangements to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in 1995 .

Oliver's compositions include “Yes Indeed” , known from Ray Charles , but also “For Dancers Only”, “Opus I”, “Well Git It” and “Easy Does It” .

Appreciation

Martin Kunzler describes the arranger, who was influenced by Ellington (together with Benny Carter and Don Redman , but more decisive than them) as the defining figure of the Jimmie Lunceford orchestra: “through strong contours of the saxophone setting , call and response change between the sections and two-beat -Rhythm. (...) As a swing trumpeter, Sy Oliver is an accomplished growl and wah-wah specialist with taste and solo potency. "

Digby Fairweather described Sy Oliver, nicknamed "Psychology ," "as one of the most serious, intelligent, and well-educated people in swing."

According to Leonard Feather , his style (at Lunceford) "was determined by simple swinging effects, staccato phrases with a touch of humor and a brilliant feeling for continuity and climax".

Web links

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Quoted in Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings . 8th edition. Penguin, London 2006, ISBN 0-14-102327-9 .
  2. ↑ Kunzler, p. 877 f.
  3. ↑ Digby Firweather, p. 482 f.
  4. ^ Feather, p. 505.
personal data
SURNAME Oliver, Sy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Oliver, Melvin James (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz trumpeter, arranger, composer, singer and band leader
DATE OF BIRTH December 17, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Battle Creek , Michigan
DATE OF DEATH May 28, 1988
Place of death New York City , New York