Representative Albums: "Compulsion to Swing," "Compulsion to Swing in Rhythm," "Music for Bachelors"
Biography
Conductor and arranger Henri Rene was born and raised in Germany, where he studied at Berlin's Royal Academy of Music; he emigrated to the U.S. during the mid-1920s, appearing with a series of orchestras before returning to Berlin a few years later to serve as an arranger with a German record label. Rene came back to the States in 1936 to accept the position of musical director with RCA-Victor's international arm; in 1941, he also formed his own orchestra. After serving with the Allied forces in World War II, he returned to RCA to arrange and conduct a variety of classical recordings; during the mid-1950s, he began issuing a series of LPs -- Music for Bachelors, Music for the Weaker Sex, Compulsion to Swing and Riot in Rhythm among them -- that were forerunners of the space-age pop aesthetic. As a producer, Rene also helmed a number of releases for RCA's "Stereo Action" series, as well as Harry Belafonte's 1956 landmark LP Calypso and a handful of Eartha Kitt efforts; he left the label in 1959, working freelance for the remainder of his career. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
