SwingDJs

I’m a Little amazed we haven’t talked much about the Arrangers behind some of the big bands. The more and more I investigate the bands, I find the more I like certain charts by particular arrangers.
So who are some of your favorite arrangers?

Some the arrangers I am really digging at the moment are:
Sy Oliver, Billy May, Don Redman, Jimmy Mundy, Jerry Gray, Eddie Durham, Edgar Sampson, Horace Henderson, Andy Razaf.

There are so many of them out there, and many of them frounted their own bands at some stage, but they are a very important aspect of Swing that we should ensure we look into.

Brian

I thought Razaf only did lyrics.

I remember asking Bill Elliott who did the arrangement for the version of Star Dust his band had just played, expecting him to say "me", but it was Jerry Gray.

In any list of arrangers we can't forget the Strayhorn/Ellington duo.

My favorite arrangers are the Basie orchestra :) Head arrangements man, head arrangements.

it's tough to talk about arrangers because it's not always immediately obvious who did what and how...

maybe you could tell us your views on your favorite arrangers in more detail... include who did what famous charts by what orchestra... and how they used the orchestras for what effects... if you want to write something like that, i'd love to read it!

coming home from the movie theater, i'll say one of my favorites is Ray Charles...!

Both Fletcher Henderson and Mary Lou Williams did some Arranging for Goodman... didn't Henderson do the Sing Sing Sing arrangement?

Williams is an underappreciated writer/arranger in my opinion.

This is where liner notes comes in very handy.
julius, your dead right, about Razaf.

Ok, Lets take Sy Oliver. Sy did a lot of composing as well as arranging.
His early work with Jimmie Lunceford is fantastic, and then he went on to arrange for the Tommy Dorsey band. Most of Dorsey's material I like is Oliver arranged.
A CD that has been mentioned a few times on this board is:
"Yes Indeed" Tommy Dorsey with Sy Oliver Arragements. Really great.
Jimmy seemed to lose some of his kick after Sy left.

Mary Lou Williams is another great example.
Any Kirk had some fantastic charts with Mary's arrangements. After she left, Any's new charts were a bit dry.

I LOVE DON REDMAN!!!!!

i just ordered the 40-cd big band box. hopefully there are arranging credits listed

As we discussed in the Billy May thread, I love talking about arrangers.

How about the obvious ones like Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn???!!!

Others that had significant impact were Eddie Sauter with the Goodman band of the early 40s. Bill Finegan with the Miller Band of the 40s.

Also when you start talking about Woody Herman, Ralph Burns becomes a big time composer/ arranger.

With smaller groups, it can be more difficult to spot the arranger because a lot of things were 'head' arrangements. But with John Kirby, Charlie Shavers was a significant composer/arranger.

With Basie, one you get past the head arrangement days in the early years (~1936-1938), then you have to start thinking about Buck Clayton, Don Redman come to mind.

In thinking about about Lunceford, after Sy Oliver left the band, Gerald Wilson became a key composer/arranger. Gerald still writes original work.

How about the fabulous Benny Carter. He wrote, arranged, played and had a HUGE impact on music from the early 30s all way up till his passing.

I know this board generally doesn't dance to Kenton, but the impact Kenton had on music is VERY significant. None larger than Pete Rugolo from the mid 40s till 1949. Kenton himself was a great composer/arranger.

When you start moving into the 1950s, names will start popping up for all types of big band sounds like Bill Holman, Shorty Rogers, Johnny Mandel, Oliver Nelson, Nelson Riddle, Axel Stordahl, Paul Weston.

Also in the 50s, that arranged and wrote for Basie and Harry James are Neal Hefti. How about Frank Foster. Frank is still crankign out new material.

A few that come to mind with the Andrews Sisters and Bing Crosby are Vic Shoen and John Scott Trotter. More pop oriented, but very tasty things.

Let's not forget Les Brown himself. Along with being a great band leader, he wrote some marvelous arrangements also.

As I think of more, I'll spit more names out. But as you'll find, the list is endless. Like the musicians everyone loves, the arrangers becomes a treasure trove of great music.

GemZombie wrote:Both Fletcher Henderson and Mary Lou Williams did some Arranging for Goodman... didn't Henderson do the Sing Sing Sing arrangement?

Jimmy Mundy did Benny Goodman's "SSS" arrangement. My Fletcher Henderson disc doesn't seem to say who arranged the Fletcher Henderson version, but it might have been Horace Henderson, since he arranged a lot of stuff for Fletcher.

SpuzBal wrote:

GemZombie wrote:Both Fletcher Henderson and Mary Lou Williams did some Arranging for Goodman... didn't Henderson do the Sing Sing Sing arrangement?

Jimmy Mundy did Benny Goodman's "SSS" arrangement. My Fletcher Henderson disc doesn't seem to say who arranged the Fletcher Henderson version, but it might have been Horace Henderson, since he arranged a lot of stuff for Fletcher.

I stand corrected, thanks. Fletcher did do a number of arrangements for Goodman though, yes?

SpuzBal wrote:

GemZombie wrote:Both Fletcher Henderson and Mary Lou Williams did some Arranging for Goodman... didn't Henderson do the Sing Sing Sing arrangement?

Jimmy Mundy did Benny Goodman's "SSS" arrangement. My Fletcher Henderson disc doesn't seem to say who arranged the Fletcher Henderson version, but it might have been Horace Henderson, since he arranged a lot of stuff for Fletcher.

Yes, my copies don't say anything either.

but according to http://nfo.net/usa/h4.html "He [Horace Henderson] played and did arrangements for brother Fletcher's band at various times from 1931 to 1947, among which were "Chirstopher Columbus" parts of which were later incorporated into "Sing, Sing, Sing", a song credited to Louis Prima while he was with Benny's band."

And according to http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article ... php?id=789, "“Sing, Sing, Sing” was composed by bandleader Louis Prima and recorded several times beofre Goodman recorded it for the soundtrack to the movie 'Hollywood Hotel.' It was revisited at Goodman's all-star Carnegie Hall concert, but combined with Fletcher Henderson's "Christopher Columbus," lasting 12 minutes. Obviously, this remains the best known version."

I think I'm naming more composers than arrangers here but I think all of these guys did both...

Will Hudson (without him no White Heat or Jazznocracy),

Spud Murphy (his studios sides are great, wrote a bunch of sides for Goodman)...

Larry Clinton (Dipsy Doodle)

Mr. Morton (King Porter Stomp)

Oh yea and I HIGHLY recommend "Yes Indeed" it's out of print now but it's worth any jacked up price for the tune "The Minor Goes A Muggin'" with Ellington sitting in on piano...

GemZombie wrote:Fletcher did do a number of arrangements for Goodman though, yes?

Yeah. I can't think of anything for sure off the top of my head (I'd look it up, but I'm in a rush), but I think he arranged "Sugar Foot Stomp," "King Porter Stomp," and "Down South Camp Meetin'."

Ernie Wilkins with Basie and Harry James in the 50s and beyond.

Claude Thornhill was an original thinker and had Gil Evans on staff
for a time in the 40s. Gil went on to have a very successfully career
with Miles Davis and on his own in the 50s thru the 80s.

Gerry Mulligan was one of the true originals in the formation of the
cool 'west coast' sound. He was writing for Gene Krupa in the mid
40s. Went on to write for Miles and had a good stint with Kenton in
the 50s before leading his own group.

Esquivel just pop'd into my head. One of the formative minds in the
exotica sound. In that same style, how about Martin Denny?

I just did a search on 'Big Band Arrangers' and found this marvelous
resource:

http://nfo.net/usa/arranger.html

Enjoy.

holy crap! the newest proper box is



sounds completely awesome!
has joop visser been reading this thread???