|
|
NFO.NET
BIG BANDS DATABASE PLUS
A W  rld of Information!
TUNESMITHS
|
|
|
|
NFO.NET
BIG BANDS DATABASE PLUS
A W rld of Information!
TUNESMITHS
|
| DATABASES | ARCHIVES | RESOURCES | INSTRUCTION | CONTACT US |
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
|
Luis Enriquez Bacalov
Among his earliest film works are such examples as:
Currently (2006), Bacalov remains very active. Among his most recent works are:
As the child of well off parents (his father was a syndicated newspaper columnist), he would often listen to the Philadelphia Symphony while driving with his parents from Philadelphia to the Sea Shore. He studied cello, drums, and piano, and loved the works of Ravel; the French impressionists; Eric Satie, and also the melodic Russian, Rachmaninoff. As a youngster, he was exposed to the Theater, and grew up listening to the big bands. When the family moved to New York City, he had a chance to listen to Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. A wide variety of influences helped to form Bacharach's style of composition. Burt is a classically trained musician who studied with Bohuslav Martinu, Darius Milhaud, and with Henry Cowell. In New York, he studied music theory and composition at the Mannes School, and at the New School for Social Research (with Darius Milhaud). He continued his studies at the Berkshire Music Center, of Montreal's McGill University, and at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, CA. His music studies were interrupted by a tour of service with the U. S. Army, where he served in Germany, While still in the service, Burt played piano in a dance band, and in nightclubs. He backed singers Steve Lawrence, the Ames Brothers, and Paula Stewart. In 1952. he was honorably discharged, and on Dec. 22, 1953, he married Paula Stewart . Bacharach returned to the U.S., and began writing for Lawrence, Patti Page, the Ames Brothers, and others, It all came together for Bert when, while making the rounds of New York's Brill Building (Tin Pan Alley), he met lyricist Hal David. Working in the back room of some music publisher. It was with David that Bacharach had his biggest hits. The Bacharach/David team's first hit single was "The Story of My Life" sung by Marty Robbins. Hal David would go on to become Bacharach's songwriting partner and collaborated on most of his biggest hits. The Bacharach/David team followed up in January 1958 with Perry Como's "Magic Moments," another U.K. chart-topper and a Top Five entry in America. The new team came up with hit after hit, among which were:
In 1968, the team scored the Broadway hit show 'Promises, Promises', produced by David Merrick, and directed by Bob Moore. Neil Simon wrote the script and the libretto. In an effort to stay faithful to the script, lyricist Hal David wrote the lyrics first, and then Bacharach fitted the music.
In 1958, he and Stewart were divorced, and Burt went on a European tour with Marlene Dietrich. He returned in 1961, and with lyricist Bob Hilliard, wrote several songs for the Drifters (including "Mexican Divorce" and "Please Stay") He then reunited with Hal David, and, at a susequent arranging session, they met singer Dionne Warwick Between 1962 and 1968, the team would go on to compose 15 Top 40 Singles for Dionne (including some Top 10 Singles such as "Anyone Who Had a Heart," "Walk on By," "Message to Michael," "I Say a Little Prayer," "Valley of the Dolls," and "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?"). In England, such stars as Sandie Shaw , the Walker Brothers, Frankie Vaughan , Cilla Black, and Herb Alpert all had number 1 releases with Bacharach/David compositions. During the 1960s, Bacharach and David contributed scores for such films as What's New Pussycat?, Alfie, and the James Bond secret agent 007 Casino Royale. The 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid featured perhaps their most celebrated score, which won Oscars both for 'Best Original Score' and 'Best Theme Song' ( "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head"). In the late '60s; the Bacharach/David team scored the musical Promises, Promises , which won a 'Tony' and a 'Grammy Award' (for cast album). In 1969, Bacharach's own recording of "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" was in the Top 100 charts. . In July 1970, their song "(They Long to Be) Close to You", recorded by The Carpenters hit number 1 on U.S. Charts. Still, even with all it's successes, 1970 must have been a rather unhappy years for Burt. Hal David, Dionne Warwick, and his second wife Angie Dickinson -- all left him. (The David and Bacharach break up was acrimonious.) During this 1970s-'80 decade, Bacharach's releases were, by and large, disappointing. But in 1981, he, Carol Bayer Sager, Peter Allen, and Christopher Cross began a collaboration on what would become the Oscar-winning "Arthur's Theme." Other Sager/Bacharach hits followed with Neil Diamond's release of "Heartlight", (number 5 on the charts), and Roberta Flack's "Making Love" (Top 20). Bacharach had two number 1 hits in 1986, "That's What Friends Are For", and "On My Own." In the 1993, Dionne released another Bacharach tune "Sunny Weather Love". In 1996, BBC-TC released a documentary film on Burt. In 1998, Rhino Records released a 3 CD set of his most popular tunes. Postscript:
Burt's marriages included:
Over his career, Constantin worked on over 261 films, including his first, 1929's 'Younger Generation', where he worked as a musical director and was credited only as 'Bakaleinikoff'. The last film on which he worked (as conductor) was the 1957 film 'Bachelor Party'. He is credited with composing on such films as 1931's "Ten Cents a Dance"; 1939's "A Day on Treasure Island"; 1940's "Modern New Orleans"; 1942's "My Favorite Spy"; 1944's "Higher and Higher"; and 1946's "Dick Tracy vs. Cueball", to name just of few. One interesting aspect of his career took place on May 18, 1927. Director Cecil B. DeMille's 'King of Kings' opened at Hollywood's famed Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard (just one year after actress Norma Talmadge used a gold-plated shovel for the ground-breaking ceremony.) 500 policemen contained the estimated 50,000 movie fans who filled the streets. The evening's billing had Grauman, followed by DeMille, followed by Christ. The great director and movie pioneer D.W. Griffith served as the Master of Ceremonies. DeMille, Mary Pickford, and Wil Hays were the principal speakers, after which the audience was treated to a concert of film music "classics" conducted by Constantin Bakaleinikoff. Constantin' s wife was Fritzi Ridgeway, an actress whose career began in the 1910s. She was seen in her first picture in 1917, 'The Hero Of The Hour', and her last film was 1934's 'We Live Again'. Fritzi Ridgeway was born on April 8, 1898, in Butte, Montana, USA and died on March 29, 1961, in Lancaster, California, USA. (heart attack) At times she was "credited" as Fritzie Ridgeway or as Fritzie Ridgway.
In 1905, Ball was already in New York City, he was given a few verses written by the then state Senator, James J. Walker, who later became famous as the Dapper Jimmy Walker, Mayor of New York City. He put one of the verse to music, and called it "Will You Love Me In December as You Do In May?". It became a national hit. Sometime after 1905, Ball had a dual career, writing songs and also singing them himself on the vaudeville stages. At first he worked alone, but later shared billing with his second wife, Maude Lambert. Ball had a rather remarkable job. He came to NYC as a young man and managed to secure a position as a demonstrator for Witmark Music, a Tin Pan Alley firm. In 1907 he signed a contract with Witmark that guaranteed him work, as the house composer, for 20 years. Just before his death, Witmark renewed the contract for an additional 10 years. Between 1907 and 1910, Ball wrote a number of 'mainstream' songs that were somewhat successful. Starting in 1910, Ball wrote the first of his Irish classics, "Mother Machree". He followed this in 1912 with "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling". Rida Johnson Young was the lyricist for both of these songs. After this Ball wrote a great many songs, all in the Irish vein. Ball has said that he became a successful composer when he learned to write songs that came from his heart, and were about things that he knew. A few minutes after his act on a Santa Ana, CA vaudeville theater, he suffered a fatal heart attack and died, just 49 years old. Currently No Information Available No relation to Kenny Baker - Popular American Singer of the 1930s - 40s. b. March 1, 1921, Withernsea, Yorkshire, England, UK d. December 7, 1999, Felpham, West Sussex, England, UK. (viral infection) Though uncredited, he composed the dance music for the very successful 1948 film 'The Red Shoes'. Baker also composed the night club music in the 1949 British film 'The Small Back Room' (released in the USA in 1952 as 'Hour of Glory') He as also appeared on camera in films and TV.. In 1954, Kenny appeared in the English film "Face the Music" (The Black Glove in USA) as both the conductor and Trumpet soloist. He has played Cornet solos in some TV series about Bix Beiderbecke (In 1984, '87 and '88)
1930 "I'm On A Diet Of Love", L. Wolfe Gilbert lyric. (Pix- Happy Days)
In addition to the lyrics and the libretto of "Once Upon a Mattress," he wrote a trunkful of witty, sophisticated and romantic songs sung by many young artists today, including two of his favorites, - Michael Feinstein and Andrea Marcovicci. Marshall's "most heard" song has to be the 'Mighty Mouse' Theme: ("Here I Come to Save the Day") which is heard on the famous cartoon's soundtrack. (Interestingly, Marshall was none too proud of the tune which he claimed to have written while riding in a taxicab.) During his career, Marshall worked with many composers including Duke Ellington, Dean Fuller, J. Fred Coots, Michel Legrand, Linda Malneck -Richard Rodgers' daughter, Hugh Martin, Anita Leonard Nye, David Raksin, Mary Rodgers Richard Rodgers' - daughter), David Ross, William "Billy" Roy, Hoagy Carmichael, Vernon Duke, and Alec Wilder. He was often seen (and photographed) by tourists as well as residents, driving his signature auto, -a denim-patch covered Mercedes with kerchief hanging from the right rear pocket on the right rear window. Barer often held Sunday night soirees in Venice Beach (CA) for other singers and song writers adventurous enough to eat his food, and lucky enough to sing his songs. Among notable guests were Marcovicci, Feinstein, Ronny Graham and a very young singer-song writer, Fiona Apple. Marshall, a unique song stylist and story-teller, began his own cabaret act when he was well into his sixties. He played "Parlor Concerts" and "The Gardenia" in Los Angeles and "Don't Tell Mama" in New York, where he'd interpret the lyrics of his own "Beyond Compare," "On Such A Night As This," and "Shall We Join The Ladies (and Make One Great Big Mama)?". And, his popular one-line parodies, i.e., A tailor measuring a gentleman's trousers: "Inseams we've stood and talked like this before". A self-proclaimed true eccentric, Marshall insisted that his death be in the vein of "Exit Laughing," with celebrations of his life on both coasts. He told stories and sang songs until he couldn't. The memory of his ability to write, sing and speak "just the right word"and his inability to put the top back on the peanut butter jar remains. Mighty Marshall did and will "save the day" on many evenings. Among Mr Barer's Songs are:
Marshall Barer, called by many of his friends and colleagues "the best living lyricist and worst living houseguest," retired the honor on August 25, 1998 (at age 75) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, his home, after living many years in Venice, California.
In the 1930's and '40's, Barris often appeared in Crosby's films with bit parts as a bandleader, or rehearsal pianist, or as a jive-talking sideman musician. He mostly recalled today as the composer of a pair of pop standards:
John Barry's mother was a classical pianist, while his father owned a chain of Movie Theatres. During his youth, he played both piano and trumpet. By age 15, he was working as a film projectionist. In the early 1950s, while Barry was serving in the British Army, he took a correspondence course with bandleader Stan Kenton, and also worked in a military band. Out of the service in 1955, he and a few Army buddies formed their own 'Rock and Roll' band, The John Barry Seven. John's own arrangements got the group a lot of attention. He was signed to an EMI Parlophone recording contract, and soon became the label's musical director. Barry now started to produce and arrange music for other artists. Subsequently, Barry's lush scores have added to the popularity of a great many films, including his first film (1960) Beat Girl, which was followed up with Never Let Go, The Amorous Prawn, A Doll's House, Love Among the Ruins and Mary Queen of Scots. Some of the other films on which he contributed scores include:
Barry has scored the stage musical Billy, as well as written themes for the Television show The Persuaders. During the 1960s, he was the Musical Director for the Ember Label record company. Barry currently (2002) lives in the village of Oyster Bay, New York, USA, with his wife Laurie.
During WWII, he did compose some scores for an RAF Film Unit, but finally his moment of wide fame would arrive when he later worked on the film Love Story. The spirit of those times required all film concertos to be hyper-romantic and composers such as Jack Beaver, Richard Addinsell, and Hubert Bath obliged the studios. Love Story, required a concerto for piano and orchestra. Actress Margaret Lockwood, heroine pianist of the plot, falls madly in love with the composer, played by Stewart Granger. The concerto, filled with emotion, induces in the listener a feeling of North Atlantic ocean waves beating against the stormy Cornish Cliffs. Bath's work successfully captured these feelings and is known today as "The Cornish Rhapsody". (The concert performance of Cornish Rhapsody was given in the Royal Albert Hall.) There is still another interesting sidelight to this work. On the film's soundtrack, pianist Harriet Cohen is heard playing this emotionally supercharged composition about Cornwall. Perhaps, as she was playing, she may have recollected her own days working with composer Arnold Bax, in North Cornwall some 30 years previously. Among his screen works are:
The score, completed in September 1942, was longer than most of his tone poems, and is now kept in the National Library of Malta in Valletta. Muir Mathieson conducted the RAF Symphony orchestra, while narration was provided by Laurence Olivier. Bax was quite disappointed when he heard his music obscured on the soundtrack by sound effects and narration. Later, when actor Olivier asked Bax if he was unhappy about the talking and sound effects, Bax replied:
Bax's frustration must have disinclined him to further film work but Mathieson's inveigling induced him to do still another score, this time for David Lean's Oliver Twist. Bax composed the score over ten weeks while sitting in The White Horse pub at Storrington, the town where he spent the remaining years of his life. The soundtrack was recorded at Denham with pianist Harriet Cohen, playing with the Philharmonia Orchestra. Undoubtably, it was Bax who prescribed his good friend Harriet to the studio heads. (Later Harriet Cohen may have recalled these days in Cornwall when she recorded Hubert Bath's, "Cornish Rhapsody" for the soundtrack of the film Love Story.) Muir Mathieson's arrangement of the score was as a seven movement concert suite which was widely performed, with some movements being recorded. The version of the suite, as recorded by Eric Parkin (piano), Kenneth Alwyn and the Royal Philharmonic in 1986, had a total of eleven movements. In 1951, Bax worked on his last film, a short documentary about British figures from the 18th century, made for British Transport Films. Bax always held Mathieson in very high regard. While not an enthusiastic collaborator, he did retain a fascination with the technique of co-ordinating music with the picture and dialogue. Also, Bax may have recognized that his film work would reach a far larger audience than any of his concert works. This would also be true, -during the late 1940s and into the 1950s, for many other traditional composers as well, whose works were suffering from the onset of a change in musical fashion.  Phil Baxter
b. 1896, Navarro County, Texas, d. 1972, Dallas, Texas Overview Phil Baxter is recalled today primarily as an orchestra leader, whose bands were regionally, rather than nationally, known. He was not very active after the 1930's. His best known compositions have a novelty character, as such songs: 1929 "Piccolo Pete" 1930 "I'm a Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas (You ought to see me Strut My Stuff") 1934 "Have A Little Dream On Me", lyrics by Billy Rose and John Murray
In 1934, Benjamin worked on his first film, 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' (starring Leslie Howard and Merle Oberon - a Matheson commission), quickly followed the same year by an Alfred Hitchcock suspense film 'The Man Who Knew Too Much', in which his "Storm Clouds Cantata" was first heard. Other film scores followed, but one of interest was the 1936 picture 'Wings of the Morning' (starring Henry Fonda). It was the first Technicolor film to be made in Britain. Returning after a visit to Canada, his score for the 'Master of Bankdam' included an aria, "The Fire of Your Love" (sung by Maria Var in the film). Benjamin also produced, and appeared in the short documentary 'Steps of the Ballet', which was intended as audio/visual instruction on the process of composing, producing and dancing for Ballets. Some critics of the day considered it to be a "partner" to Benjamin Britten's 'Instruments of the Orchestra' film. Among the films scored by Arthur Benjamin are:
Benjamin's last two works were
A small sampling of the over 150 songs that he wrote shows such hit compositions as:
Co-composed with Ed Durham, Sol Marcus,and Ed Seiler
Bennie with Sol Marcus and Francisco Jean Lopez.
Bennie with Sol Marcus and Max I. Anzelowitz.
Bennie with Sol Marcus, and Ed Seiler:
Bennie with Sol Marcus, Ed Seiler, and Edgar Battle
Bennie, Kay Julian, and Sol Marcus
The team of Bennie Benjamin and George Weiss wrote their best songs during the 1940's and 1950's, with such hits as:
Only a few people today recall that Benjamin and Weiss wrote the musical scores and lyrics for two of Walt Disney's full length featured films, "Fun and Fancy Free" and "Melody Time." Bennie and vocalist Perry Como were co-owners (1950) and later Bennie was sole owner (1968) of his own music publishing company.
Subsequently, he joined the Communist Party, where among other things, he arranged a cabaret for the leftist 'International Youth Centre'. In 1952, he collaborated with John Gold in writing the annual IYC review with a story about Robin Hood. For the leftist 'Unity Theatre', he wrote the lyrics for an agit-prop version of 'Cinderella'. It was during this time that while on a bus passing the 'St Bartholomews Hospital' (familiarly known as "Barts") he decided to change his name to Bart. An interesting sidelight to his career occurred on September 1956 when he saw Tommy Hicks playing guitar in a Soho coffee bar. Bart signed Tommy to perform in a group called 'the Cavemen'. Bart then persuaded John Kennedy and Larry Parnes to see Tommy Hicks perform, and they were sp impressed that they signed Tommy, and in the process changed his name to Tommy Steele. Bart's first taste of success came from the tunes he composed for Tommy Steele and for Cliff Richard, -both Rock and Rollers. For Tommy Steele , he wrote such tunes as "Rock With the Caveman" and "Little White Bull". For rocker Cliff Richard, Bart composed "Living Doll", which, in 1959, reached No. 1 on the British Charts and remained there for 6 weeks. In 1958, he wrote his first musical, 'Wally Pone of Soho', which flopped. In 1959, his musicals, "Lock Up Your Daughters", and "Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be", were opened, and successfully runing on London's famed West End theatre row. Then, on June 30, 1960, the musical "Oliver!" opened. The show was financed by Bart himself due to the show having been turned down by over a dozen promoters. It was an instantaneous hit, receiving 23 curtain calls. It ran for 2618 performances in London, then opened on Broadway in 1963 where it ran for 774 performances. The 1968 film version, directed by Carol Reed, won several Oscars, including Best Picture. Oliver! was followed by other fairly successful shows such as Blitz and Maggie May. At just age 30, Bart was a very rich man. To finance his next musical "Twang!!" (based on the story of Robin Hood), Bart signed away all rights to Oliver! "Twang!!" flopped badly. Bart later estimated that between Twang!!, and the lost rights to Oliver, he had lost about 100m. In 1972. with debts of 73,000, he filed for bankruptcy. No doubt, all these troubles led to a decade drinking in his flat in Acton. Tom Vallance, later writing Bart's obituary in 'The Independent: The Monday Review', 5th. April, 1999, page 6, wrote:
In both 1975 and in 1983, he was banned from driving (after his arrests for driving "under the influence"). In the late 1970's, due mostly to his heavy drinking habit, he developed Diabetes. His old friend, John Gorman, reappeared helping Bart sort out his life and got Bart to join Alcoholics Anonymous. Bart did stop drinking, but one third of his liver had been destroyed. In the 1980s, Bart again gained attention with a new version of "Livin' Doll" with satirical words. In 1986 he received a special Ivor Novello Award for his life's achievement. During his career, Bart's work included writing comedy songs for the Sunday lunchtime BBC radio programme the 'Billy Cotton Band Show'. On Bart's demise, writer Tom Vallance (quoted above) said that Bart
In Bart's Obituary by Dennis Barker in 'The Guardian', 5th. April, 1999, page 13, Barker wrote:
His friends included No� Coward, Brian Epstein, Judy Garland, Alma Cogan, and Shirley Bassey. He was known to have spent weekends in Mustique with Princess Margaret. Lionel will be remembered as one of the 20th century's best writers of popular song.
|
|
eMail/Webmaster: [ mlp@nfo.net ] murray pfeffer
|
VIDEO: "Marshall Barer"