Pete Rugolo

Pete Rugolo

born on 25/12/1915 in San Piero Patti, Sicilia, Italy

died on 16/10/2011 in Sherman Oaks, CA, United States

Pete Rugolo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Pietro "Pete" Rugolo (December 25, 1915 – October 16, 2011) was an American jazz composer, arranger and record producer.

Life and career

Rugolo was born in San Piero Patti, Sicily. His family emigrated to the United States in 1920 and settled in Santa Rosa, California. He began his career in music playing the baritone horn, like his father, but he quickly branched out into other instruments, notably the French horn and the piano. He received a bachelor's degree from San Francisco State College, and then went on to study composition with Darius Milhaud at Mills College in Oakland, California and earn his master's degree.

After he graduated, he was hired as an arranger and composer by guitarist and bandleader Johnny Richards. He spent World War II playing with altoist Paul Desmond in an Army band.

After the war, Rugolo worked for Stan Kenton, who headed one of the most musically progressive big bands of the era. He and the songwriter Joe Greene collaborated on songs that made Kenton's band one of America's most popular.[1] Rugolo provided arrangements and original compositions that drew on his knowledge of 20th-century music, sometimes blurring the boundaries between jazz and classical music.

While Rugolo continued to work occasionally with Kenton in the 1950s, he spent more time creating arrangements for pop and jazz vocalists, most extensively with former Kenton singer June Christy on such albums as Something Cool, The Misty Miss Christy, Fair and Warmer!, Gone for the Day and The Song Is June!. Other singers he arranged for included Ernestine Anderson, Harry Belafonte, Nat King Cole, The Diamonds, Billy Eckstine, the Four Freshmen, Peggy Lee, Patti Page, Mel Tormé and Kitty White. During this period, he also worked for a while on film musicals at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and served as an A&R director for Mercury Records in the late 1950s. Among his many albums were Adventures in Rhythm, Introducing Pete Rugolo, Rugolomania, An Adventure in Sound: Reeds in Hi-Fi and Music for Hi-Fi Bugs.

Rugolo's arrangements for album The Four Freshmen and Five Trombones propelled the group to recognition in jazz circles. It was their best selling album of all time and they still perform music from that album.

Television and film scoring work

In the 1960s and 1970s, Rugolo did a great deal of work in television, contributing music to a number of popular series including Leave It to Beaver, Thriller, The Thin Man, Checkmate, The Fugitive, Run for Your Life, Felony Squad, The Bold Ones: The Lawyers, Alias Smith and Jones and Family.[2] He also provided scores for a number of TV movies and a few theatrical films, such as Jack the Ripper (1959), The Sweet Ride (1968), Underground Aces (1981) and Chu Chu and the Philly Flash (1981).[3] Rugolo's small combo jazz music featured in a couple of numbers in the popular movie Where the Boys Are (1960), under the guise of Frank Gorshin's "Dialectic Jazz Band". While his work in Hollywood often demanded that he suppress his highly original style, there are some striking examples of Rugolo's work in both TV and film. The soundtrack for the last movie on which he worked, This World, Then the Fireworks (1997), demonstrates his gift for writing music that is both sophisticated and expressive.

Death

Rugolo died, aged 95, on October 16, 2011 in Sherman Oaks, California.[4] He is survived by wife Edye, sons Peter and Tony, and daughter Gina.[5]

Discography

  • Introducing Pete Rugolo (Columbia, 1954)
  • Adventures in Rhythm (Columbia, 1955)
  • Rugolomania (Columbia, 1955)
  • New Sounds by Pete Rugolo (Harmony, 1954–55, [1957])
  • Music for Hi-Fi Bugs (EmArcy, 1956)
  • Out on a Limb (EmArcy, 1956)
  • An Adventure in Sound: Reeds in Hi-Fi (Mercury, 1956 [1958]) also released as An Adventure in Sound - Reeds
  • An Adventure in Sound: Brass in Hi-Fi (Mercury, 1956 [1958]) also released as An Adventure in Sound - Brass
  • Percussion at Work (Mercury, 1958)
  • Rugolo Plays Kenton (EmArcy, 1958)
  • The Music from Richard Diamond (EmArcy, 1959)
  • Behind Brigitte Bardot (Warner Bros., 1960)
  • 10 Trombones Like 2 Pianos (Mercury, 1960)
  • The Original Music of Thriller (Time, 1961)
  • Ten Trumpets and 2 Guitars (Mercury, 1961)
  • 10 Saxophones and 2 Basses (Mercury, 1961)
  • TV's Top Themes (Mercury, 1962)

Compilations

  • Music from Out of Space (Mercury, 1959) - selections from Music for Hi-Fi Bugs and Out on a Limb
  • Rhythm Meets Rugolo (Mercury, 1960) - selections from Music for Hi-Fi Bugs and Out on a Limb
  • Study in Stereo (Mercury, 1963) - selections from the "10 and 2" albums

As conductor/arranger

With Nat King Cole

  • "Lush Life" (Capitol, 1949)
  • The Nat King Cole Trio Vol. 4 (Capitol, 1949)
  • "Frosty the Snowman" (Capitol, 1950)
  • 10th Anniversary Album (Capitol, 1948–1953 [1955])
  • The Nat King Cole Story (Capitol, 1961)

With June Christy

  • Something Cool (Capitol, 1955)
  • The Misty Miss Christy (Capitol, 1956)
  • Fair and Warmer! (Capitol, 1957)
  • Gone for the Day (Capitol, 1957)
  • This Is June Christy! (Capitol, 1958)
  • The Song Is June! (Capitol, 1958)
  • Recalls Those Kenton Days (Capitol, 1959)
  • Off-Beat (Capitol, 1960)
  • This Time of Year (Capitol, 1961)

With Robert Clary

  • Gigi (Mercury, 1958)

With Buddy Collette

  • Buddy Collette's Swinging Shepherds (EmArcy, 1958)
  • At the Cinema! (Mercury, 1959)

With The Diamonds

  • The Diamonds Meet Pete Rugolo (Mercury, 1958)

With Vernon Duke

  • Time Remembered (Mercury, 1957)

With Billy Eckstein

  • Billy Eckstine's Imagination (EmArcy, 1958)

With The Four Freshmen

  • Four Freshmen and 5 Trombones (Capitol, 1955)
  • Four Freshmen and Five Saxes (Capitol, 1957)
  • Voices in Latin (Capitol, 1957)
  • Voices and Brass (Capitol, 1960)
  • More 4 Freshmen and 5 Trombones (Capitol, 1964)

With Donna Fuller

  • My Foolish Heart (Liberty, 1957)

With Paul Horn

  • House of Horn (Dot, 1957)

With Stan Kenton

  • Stan Kenton's Milestones (Capitol, 1943-47 [1950])
  • Stan Kenton Classics (Capitol, 1944-47 [1952])
  • Artistry in Rhythm (Capitol, 1946)
  • Encores (Capitol, 1947)
  • A Presentation of Progressive Jazz (Capitol, 1947)
  • Popular Favorites by Stan Kenton (Capitol, 1953)
  • Kenton in Hi-Fi (Capitol, 1956)
  • Lush Interlude (Capitol, 1958)
  • Artistry in Voices and Brass (Capitol, 1963)

With Ruth Olay

  • Olay! The New Sound of Ruth Olay (Mercury, 1959)

With Patti Page

  • In the Land of Hi-Fi (Mercury, 1956)
  • The East Side (Mercury, 1957)
  • The West Side (Mercury, 1959)

Film and television scores

  • The Strip (1951)
  • The Stranger (1954)
  • The Thin Man (1958–59)
  • Jack the Ripper (1959)
  • Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1959)
  • Private Property (1960)
  • Where the Boys Are (1960)
  • Thriller (1960–61)
  • My Three Sons (1961)
  • General Electric Theater (1961)
  • Ichabod and Me (1961)
  • The Investigators (1961)
  • Checkmate (1961–62)
  • The Untouchables (1962)
  • 87th Precinct (1962)
  • Leave It to Beaver (1962–63)
  • The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962–63)
  • Arrest and Trial (1963)
  • The Virginian (1963)
  • The Richard Boone Show (1963)
  • The Fugitive (1963–67)
  • A French Honeymoon (1964)
  • Many Happy Returns (1964–65)
  • Kraft Suspense Theatre (1964–65)
  • Two's Company (1965)
  • Run for Your Life (1965–68)
  • Blue Light (1966)
  • Horatio Alger Jones (1966)
  • Felony Squad (1966–69)
  • Off to See the Wizard (1967)
  • Vacation Playhouse (1967)
  • Lost in Space (1968)
  • The Sweet Ride (1968)
  • The Outsider (1968)
  • The Sound of Anger (1968)
  • The Whole World Is Watching (1969)
  • The Lonely Profession (1969)
  • The Bold Ones: The Lawyers (1969–72)
  • The Young Country (1970)
  • The Challengers (1970)
  • Don Knotts' Nice Clean, Decent, Wholesome Hour (1970)
  • Alias Smith and Jones (1971–72)
  • How to Steal an Airplane (1971)
  • The Death of Me Yet (1971)
  • Who Killed the Mysterious Mr. Foster? (1971)
  • Do You Take This Stranger? (1971)
  • Sanford and Son (1972)
  • Hawaii Five-O (1972)
  • Cool Million (1972)
  • The Rookies (1972 & 1974)
  • Toma (1973)
  • The Letters (1973)
  • Set This Town on Fire (1973)
  • Letters from Three Lovers (1973)
  • Drive Hard, Drive Fast (1973)
  • Movin' On (1974)
  • Police Woman (1974)
  • The Story of Pretty Boy Floyd (1974)
  • Death Cruise (1974)
  • Death Stalk (1975)
  • Last Hours Before Morning (1975)
  • The Blue Knight (1975)
  • M*A*S*H (1975)
  • The Invisible Man (1975)
  • Foxtrot (1976)
  • The Far Side of Paradise (1976)
  • Jigsaw John (1976)
  • Family (1976-1979)
  • The San Pedro Bums (1977)
  • Kingston: Confidential (1977)
  • Carter Country (1977)
  • The Jordan Chance (1978)
  • The Last Convertible (1979)
  • Underground Aces (1981)
  • Revenge of the Gray Gang (1981)
  • Chu Chu and the Philly Flash (1981)
  • For Lovers Only (1981)
  • O'Malley (1983)
  • Fantasy Island (1983)
  • Blue Thunder (1984)
  • This World, Then the Fireworks (1997)

See also

  • List of jazz arrangers

References

  1. ^ "Joseph Greene, Composer With Stan Kenton's Orchestra, Dies". Los Angeles Times. 1986-06-28. Retrieved 2015-11-13. 
  2. ^ IMDb: Pete Rugolo accessed October 6, 2016
  3. ^ Soundtrack.net: Pete Rugolo accessed October 6, 2016
  4. ^ Grimes. W. New York Times obituary (19 October 2011)
  5. ^ Williams, R.The Guardian obituary (22 October, 2011)

External links

This page was last modified 03.01.2018 03:39:21

This article uses material from the article Pete Rugolo from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and it is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.