Melvin "Sy" Oliver (December 17, 1910 in Battle Creek, Michigan – May 28, 1988 in New York City) was a jazz arranger, trumpeter, composer, singer and bandleader.

Oliver left home at 17 to play with Zack Whyte and his Chocolate Beau Brummels and later with Alphonse Trent. He sang and played trumpet with these bands, becoming known for his "growling" horn playing. Sy arranged and conducted many songs for Ella Fitzgerald from her Decca years.
As a composer, one of his most famous songs was T'ain't What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It) which he co-wrote with Trummy Young. He joined Jimmie Lunceford's band in 1933 and contributed many hit arrangements to the band, including "My Blue Heaven" and "Ain't She Sweet". In 1939 he joined Tommy Dorsey as an arranger, though he ceased playing trumpet at that time. (Fletcher Henderson joined the Benny Goodman orchestra as the arranger in the same year.) He led the transition of the Dorsey band from Dixieland to modern big band.

Wikipedia | SHOP: Sy Oliver

Glenn Miller death / crash...

On December 15th in 1944, as World War II raged, news spread of the loss of an airplane somewhere over the English Channel between England and Paris. On board the ill-fated aircraft was Major Glenn Miller, who had been on his way to lead his Air Force Band in a Christmas concert. Alton Glenn Miller (March 1, 1904 – missing in action December 15, 1944) was an American jazz musician (trombone), arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best known "Big Bands". Miller's notable recordings include "In the Mood", "Moonlight Serenade", "Pennsylvania 6-5000", "Chattanooga Choo Choo", "A String of Pearls", "At Last", "(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo", "American Patrol", "Tuxedo Junction", and "Little Brown Jug". While he was traveling to entertain U.S. troops in France during World War II, Glenn Miller disappeared in bad weather over the English Channel. The Glenn Miller Orchestra was reformed after the war and continues to record and perform to this day. Details of death/crash | Wikipedia | SHOP: Glenn Miller

Stan Kenton birthday anniversary

Stan Kenton was born on December 15, 1911 in Wichita Kansas. Starting his own band in 1941, many of his orchestras were huge, two dozen or more. His readily-identifiable Capitol recordings were often characterized by dissonance as he refused to compromise his ideas to please critics or public, under the umbrella of Artistry in Rhythm. His version of Laura is perhaps his best remembered standard. Kenton died from a stroke Aug 25, 1979 at age 67, while still touring.

Wikipedia | SHOP: Stan Kenton

FREDDY MARTIN

Born 9 DECEMBER 1906 - Frederick Alfred (Freddy) Martin (Death: September 30, 1983) was an American bandleader and tenor saxophonist. Martin's band played in many prestigious hotels, including the Roosevelt Grill in New York City and the Ambassador in Los Angeles. A fixture on radio, his sponsored shows included NBC's Maybelline Penthouse Serenade of 1937. But Martin’s real success came in 1941 with an arrangement from the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s B-flat piano concerto. Martin recorded the piece instrumentally, but soon lyrics were added. The success of "Tonight We Love" prompted Martin to adopt other classical themes as well. In 1948, Freddy Martin hired Merv Griffin to join his band at Los Angeles’ Coconut Grove. With Griffin doing the singing, the band had a smash hit with I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Cocoanuts, a 1949 novelty song sung in a cockney accent.




Wikipedia Bio | Search Amazon.com for Freddy) Martin

Edward Ernest Sauter (December 2, 1914 in Brooklyn – April 21, 1981 in New York City) was a composer and jazz arranger.

From 1952 to 1958 Sauter was co-leader of the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra. Between 1957 and 1959 he was Kurt Edelhagen's successor as leader of the SWF orchestra in Baden-Baden, Germany. In 1961, he worked with tenor saxophonist Stan Getz on Focus, a unique collaboration for which Sauter---at Getz's commission---wrote a suite of string compositions (Roy Haynes, the jazz drummer, appeared on "I'm Late, I'm Late," the only selection to feature a non-string instrument other than Getz) without primary melodies, the idea being for Getz to improvise them in his customary lyric style.

Wikipedia | SHOP: Eddie Sauter