Van Alexander
Van Alexander , actually Alexander van Vliet Feldman , (* 2. May 1915 ; † 19th July 2015 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American jazz - composer , arranger and bandleader of the Swing .
Life
Van Alexander led his own bands in high school, for which he also arranged, and studied composition in college. He met Chick Webb in the mid-1930s through a job selling arrangements and compositions to bands . One of those tracks was A-Tisket, A-Tasket , which became a hit with the Chick Webb Orchestra with Ella Fitzgerald and then became their theme song. Alexander also arranged children's songs as jazz versions, such as Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone? and Got a Pebble in My Shoe. In November 1939 he had his only hit in the Billboard Top 30 with Hot Dog Joe , which rose to number 13. The band singer Butch Stone later became a star in the Les Brown orchestra .
He formed his own band in the late 1930s and recorded a cover version of the ink spots hit If I Didn't Care for Bluebird Records on April 25, 1939 . In the 40s he went on theater tours. In his orchestra, numerous musicians who later became known, such as Arnold Fishkin , Neal Hefti , Don Lamond , Shelly Manne , Ted Nash , Charlie Shavers , Slam Stewart , Alvin Stoller and Si Zentner, played . In 1944 he arranged for Tommy Tucker's brief swing band . Bing Crosby hired him in the late 1940s ; he then worked as a film composer, arranger and conductor in Hollywood Studios and recorded several albums with studio bands for Capitol Records . Alexander also wrote the textbook on film music arrangement (First Arrangement) in 1950 and was active as a music teacher; Johnny Mandel was one of his students. Alexander composed many soundtracks of the film noir genre such as Baby Face Nelson, The Big Operator and The Private Lives of Adam and Eve and later The Straitjacket (1964) and It Happened at 8:30 a.m. (1965).
He has also written music for television series such as The Witch in Love and The Charming Jeannie , arranged and directed shows with Mickey Rooney , Gordon MacRae , Dean Martin and James Stewart ; He has also participated in numerous recording sessions with Kay Starr , Dakota Staton , Paul Whiteman , Benny Goodman , Dinah Shore , Doris Day and Peggy Lee, among others . Alexander won numerous Emmys for his television music and was awarded the Henry Mancini Award for his life's work from ASCAP . He was for a time President of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS) for the Los Angeles District. Alexander died in July 2015 at the age of 100 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He found his final resting place in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City , California .
According to George T. Simon , Alexander's band focused more on ensemble sound than individual soloists - which was not a mistake as their arrangements were generally better than the musicians. Nevertheless, his band made it possible for some future stars to enter, such as Si Zentner and Shelly Manne.
literature
- Gerhard Klußmeier: Jazz in the Charts. Another view on jazz history. Liner notes and booklet for the 100 CD edition. Membrane International, ISBN 978-3-86735-062-4
- George T. Simon : The Golden Era of Big Bands. Hannibal-Verlag, Höfen 2004, ISBN 3-854-45243-8
- Leo Walker: The Big Band Almanac. Ward Ritchie Press, Pasadena 1978
Web links
- Literature by and about Van Alexander in the catalog of the German National Library
- Van Alexander Biography of Eugene Chadbourne at Allmusic (English)
- Van Alexander in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Interview with Marc Myers (2012 )
- Van Alexander at Discogs (English)
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Alexander, Van |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Feldman, Alexander Van Vliet (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American jazz trumpeter and big band leader |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 2, 1915 |
| DATE OF DEATH | 19th July 2015 |
| Place of death | Los Angeles , California , United States |