Billy May

[Serg]

Anybody here into Billy May? He has some great tunes at Oscillatin' Rhythm but other than that I've got nothing on him.

So what do you recomend?

Serg

[mousethief]

One of my least favorite musicians. Jerry Jelinek loves him, if I recall correctly.

Kalman

[Doug]

Billy May is SO Wonderful for swing dance that I've NEVER played any of stuff at a dance despite owning a number of his CDs. All gifts from my mom who knew I liked swing music. If I had actually paid for them I probably shove a hot poker up my butt and hope it put some sense into my head.

[mousethief]

I'm sure he has some good stuff somewhere but I have never found it. The Nat "King" Cole & Billy May sessions are some of my least favorite drink coasters around the house.

Maybe we can do a Billy May v. Lawrence Welk battle.

Kalman

[CafeSavoy]

Maybe we can do a Billy May v. Lawrence Welk battle.

Kalman

I'll take Billy May, you can have Welk.

[Jerry_Jelinek]

Yep Billy May is a particular favorite of mine.

He was one of the most original arrangers and composers during the 40s thru the 60s.

I won't go into the argument of his music being dance music or not. Like many of the innovative arrangers/composers, some of his music I'm certain many would fine enjoyable to dance to, while others won't enjoy.

In order to remove any flame wars, if you have specific questions on recordings either with his own band or backing others, I'll happily answer those in private mail.

[JesseMiner]

Anybody here into Billy May? He has some great tunes at Oscillatin' Rhythm but other than that I've got nothing on him.

So what do you recomend?

I play his version of "For Dancers Only" off of Oscillatin' Rhythms all the time. Great version! I don't play much else of his stuff, but I do carry two CDs that are tracks he recorded for the Time Life Swing Era series where he is doing recreations of swing era classics. Not versions I play often, but they are great to have around in case I need them. I'm pretty sure they are now out of print, so I recommend you pick them up if you can find them used for cheap (I got each 2 CD set for under $5 at Amoeba a while back).

Check out these threads:

Time/Life "Swingtime"
Time Life Swing LPs

Jesse

[LindyChef]

IMHO he's pretty Welk-ish (I personally put him somewhere in the evolutionary tree between Glenn Miller and Welk), but I do admit I like his recording of For Dancers Only.

[LindyChef]

Apparently I'm sharing a brain cell with Jesse this morning ...

[Lawrence]

Maybe we can do a Billy May v. Lawrence Welk battle.

Kalman

I'll take Billy May, you can have Welk.

I agree. Although Billy May did play lots of schmaltzy stuff, and he will never go down as a great jazzman, his orchestra does have some good stuff, too. His orchestra backed up Sinatra on many of his swing-oriented albums.

[CafeSavoy]

IMHO he's pretty Welk-ish (I personally put him somewhere in the evolutionary tree between Glenn Miller and Welk),.

He's that sucessful?

[Jerry_Jelinek]

...I agree. Although Billy May did play lots of schmaltzy stuff, and he will never go down as a great jazzman...

I'm going to disagree with the notion that May wasn't a great jazz man.

He was an exceptional trumpet player. Check out a lot of Charlie Barnet recordings from 1939. Billy played on nearly all of those and was the featured jazz trumpet player on a lot of them. He also wrote the famous arrangement of Cherokee.

Also Bill wrote a lot and played a lot with Miller in the early 1940s. He didn't care much for the band, but he wrote some great charts and played some inspired solos along with Clyde Hurley.

Also check him out in the Glenn Miller movie "Sun Valley Serenade". Billy is the jazz trumpet player in the movie and plays the hot solo on In The Mood.

[GemZombie]

"hot solo" ... "in the mood".

Two phrases that don't seem to go together.

[Jerry_Jelinek]

IMHO he's pretty Welk-ish (I personally put him somewhere in the evolutionary tree between Glenn Miller and Welk),.

He's that sucessful?

I'm not going to address the evolution of Glenn Miller and Lawrence Welk.

But as far as success, Billy May's was a bit more behind the scenes. After he had some success fronting a band in the early 50s, he got tired of touring and broke the band up. Sam Donahue took over the band.

Billy permanently became a studio/staff composer for Capitol. Along with his work as staff arranger, along with Nelson Riddle for Captiol, Billy was very envolved with writing music for television and radio.

His ability to quickly write arrangements for any style and show made him very much in demand for arranging jobs in the L.A. area in the 50s, 60s and into the 70s.

Billy May, 87; Musician Worked With Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee
>From a Times Staff Writer

January 23, 2004

Billy May, a 1950s bandleader, composer and arranger with a highly
distinctive style who worked with such leading recording artists as Frank Sinatra and
Peggy Lee, died of a heart attack Thursday at his home in San Juan Capistrano.
He was 87.

May began his career as a trumpeter with the Charlie Barnet Band in 1938. He
soon was contributing arrangements characterized by what the New Grove
Dictionary of Jazz described as "wailing, 'scooping' saxophones voiced in thirds."

The best-known of his arrangements for Barnet was for the hit recording of
"Cherokee," the Ray Noble song that became a standard of the swing era and
Barnet's signature tune.

In 1939, May joined the Glenn Miller band, where his arrangements included
"Take the 'A' Train" and "Serenade in Blue." With Miller, he was perhaps
best-known for his trumpet playing, notably on "I dreamt I dwelt in Harlem" in 1941
and "American Patrol" in 1942.

During the 1940s, May also wrote arrangements for the Les Brown, Woody Herman
and Alvino Rey orchestras and worked in studios and for NBC.

During the 1950s, he led his own band, which scored successes with his
arrangements of "All of Me," "Lulu's Back in Town," "Charmaine," "When My Sugar
Walks Down the Street," "Lean Baby" and "Fat Man Boogie." The latter two were his
own compositions.

During the 1950s and 1960s, he also worked as arranger-conductor for a number
of artists, including Sinatra on the singer's famous "Come Fly With Me" album
in 1958. He was associated with Sinatra for three decades after meeting the
singer in a New York saloon in 1939.

His television work included composing, with Milton Raskin, the theme song
for "Naked City," the popular ABC police drama that aired from 1958 to 1963, and
music for the Red Skelton and Ozzie and Harriet Nelson shows.

May is survived by his wife, Doris; daughters Cynthia May, Laureen Mitchell,
Joannie Ransom and Sandra Gregory; and a brother, John.

Copyright 2004 Los Angeles Times

[LindyChef]

Unspoken argument: How does his work as a composer/arranger have any redeeming value on his band? They're two different things and in this case his band's work is far more useful to us as a group than his work as a composer/arranger.