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Mansa Musa was the ruler of the Mali Empire in West Africa. Details recorded here should be sourced; unknown information is left blank.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
Sy Oliver | |
|---|---|
 Sy Oliver from September 1946 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Melvin James Oliver December 17, 1910 Battle Creek, Michigan, United States |
| Died | May 28, 1988 (aged 77) New York City |
| Genre | Jazz |
| Occupations | Bandleader, conductor, arranger |
| Years active | 1930s–1980s |
| Labels | Decca, Columbia, Capitol |
Melvin James "Sy" Oliver (December 17, 1910 – May 28, 1988)[1] was an American jazz arranger, trumpeter, composer, singer and bandleader.
Sy Oliver was born in Battle Creek, Michigan, United States.[2] His mother was a piano teacher, and his father was a multi-instrumentalist, who demonstrated saxophones at a time when instrument was seldom played other than by marching bands.
Oliver left home at 17 to play with Zack Whyte and his Chocolate Beau Brummels and later with Alphonse Trent.[2] He sang and played trumpet with these bands, becoming known for his "growling" horn playing. He also began arranging with them.[3]
He continued singing for the next 17 years, making many recordings when he was with Jimmie Lunceford and with his own band.[1] With Lunceford, from 1933 to 1939,[1] he recorded more than two dozen vocals. From 1949 to 1951, he recorded more than a dozen with his band. With Tommy Dorsey, he recorded very few vocals. In 1941, he sang with Jo Stafford, on his own compositions "Yes Indeed" and "Swingin' on Nothin'".[4] He also sang with The Sentimentalists on the 1944 recording of his arrangement of "Chicago".
Oliver 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 in 1939.
In 1933, Oliver joined Jimmie Lunceford's band as a trumpet player, arranger and songwriter. He contributed many hit arrangements for the band, including "My Blue Heaven" and "Ain't She Sweet", as well as his original composition "For Dancers Only", which eventually became the band's theme song. He was co-arranger with pianist Ed Wilcox; Oliver primarily taking the up-tempo numbers, Wilcox the ballads. Oliver's arrangements "were a dashing parade of innovation that rivaled Ellington's for consistency and originality."[5]
In 1939, when band leader Tommy Dorsey decided he wanted a swing band, his first step was to hire Oliver as an arranger away from Lunceford for $5,000 more a year.[1] Oliver then became one of the first African Americans with a prominent role in a white band when he joined Tommy Dorsey. (Fletcher Henderson, another African American composer/arranger, had joined the Benny Goodman orchestra as the arranger a few years earlier.) He led the transition of the Dorsey band from Dixieland to modern big band.[1] His joining was instrumental in Dorsey luring several jazz players, including Buddy Rich, to his band.
With Dorsey, Oliver continued sharing arranging duties with other arrangers, primarily Axel Stordahl, Oliver doing up-tempo tunes, Stordahl ballads. As James Kaplan put it, "Tommy Dorsey's band got a rocket boost in 1939 when Dorsey stole Lunceford's great arranger Sy Oliver."[6]
His arrangement of "On the Sunny Side of the Street" was a big hit for Dorsey in 1946, as were his compositions "Yes, Indeed!" (a gospel-jazz tune that was later recorded by Ray Charles), "Opus One" (originally titled as "Opus No. 1", but changed to suit the lyric that was added later), "The Minor Is Muggin'", and "Well, Git It".[1]
Oliver left Dorsey after seven years, in 1946, and began working as a freelance arranger and as music director for Decca.[7]
On June 26, 1950, Sy Oliver and his Orchestra recorded the first American version of "C'est si bon" (Henri Betti, André Hornez, Jerry Seelen) and "La Vie en rose" (Louiguy, Édith Piaf, Mack David) for Louis Armstrong. One of his more successful efforts as an arranger was the 1961 Frank Sinatra album, I Remember Tommy, a combined tribute to their former boss.
In 1974, he began a nightly gig with a small band at the Rainbow Room in New York. He continued that gig until 1984, with occasionally time off to make festival or other dates, including at the Roseland Ballroom in New York. He retired in 1984.[8]
Oliver died in New York City at the age of 77.[2]
With Jimmie Lunceford
With others
Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
Melvin James "Sy" Oliver (December 17, 1910 – May 28, 1988) was an American jazz arranger, trumpeter, composer, singer and bandleader.
I Remember Tommy... is the twenty-third studio album by Frank Sinatra, released in 1961. It was recorded as a tribute to bandleader Tommy Dorsey, and consists of re-recorded versions of songs that Sinatra had first performed or recorded with Dorsey earlier in his career. Fellow Dorsey alumnus Sy Oliver arranged and conducted the sessions. Of the twelve numbers on the album, Sinatra had recorded eleven with the Dorsey Orchestra. The opening number, "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You", was Dorsey's instrumental theme song. Sy Oliver, who was a Dorsey arranger when Sinatra was with the band, arranged three of the original recordings – "East of the Sun and West of the Moon", "Without a Song", and "The One I Love Belongs to Somebody Else". Axel Stordahl did the rest, except for "I'll Be Seeing You", arranged by Sy Oliver. "The One I Love", the last vocal track on the album, has "a jaunty Sy Oliver treatment with Oliver himself singing counterpoint." Reviews of this album were mixed, some noting that this was a well intended effort but which paled in comparison to the original 1940s recordings. Others still feel this was a fresher, more contemporary session with sharp high fidelity recording and crisp Sy Oliver arrangements, complemented by a more mature Sinatra but still with top control of his vocal abilities and smart interpretations.
Opus One may refer to: "Opus No. 1", a tune by Sy Oliver and Sid Garris "Opus Number One", a composition known for its use as music when placing a caller on hold Opus 1 (Opus album), 1975 Opus 1 (After Crying album), 2009 Opus One Winery, United States An alternative title for the 1971 demo versions of Mike Oldfield's 1973 album, Tubular Bells
Miss Wonderful is a 1959 album by Peggy Lee that was arranged and conducted by Sy Oliver.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
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