Mel Powell
Oxford Grove Music Encyclopedia:
Top
Mel Powell
(b New York, 12 Feb 1923). American composer. He was a pupil of Hindemith at Yale, where he taught (1958-69) before moving to the California Institute of the Arts. His works, in many genres, have used serial and electronic means, and several of them reflect his own experience as a jazz pianist.
AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Artists:
Top
Mel Powell
- Genres: Jazz
Biography
One of the finest swing pianists and a prodigy, Mel Powell was playing piano and writing important arrangements for Benny Goodman by the time he was 18. He had previously played with Bobby Hackett, George Brunis, and Zutty Singleton (1939), was the intermission pianist at Nick's, and worked in the short-lived Muggsy Spanier big band. During his stay with B.G., Powell and the clarinetist struck up a lifelong friendship; among his arrangements for Goodman were "The Earl," "Mission to Moscow," "Clarinade," and "Jersey Bounce." After a period working for the CBS Orchestra under Raymond Scott (1942), Powell was one of the stars of the Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band. Powell, whose style was reminiscent of Teddy Wilson's, recorded with Goodman during 1945-1947, led a few record dates (his first one was in 1942), and worked in the studios. However, after studying with Paul Hindemith at Yale (1952), he switched his career and became a classical composer. Powell did record some superior jazz dates for Vanguard during 1953-1955 and sat in with Bobby Hackett in the mid-'60s, but was otherwise occupied completely outside of jazz. After decades of work as a well-respected serial composer, Mel Powell returned to jazz for cruises in 1986 and 1987 that were recorded by Chiaroscuro. He continued composing and performing even after being diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1990. Eight years later, on April 24, Melvin Epstein died in the Los Angeles area. ~ Scott Yanow, RoviWikipedia on Answers.com:
Top
Mel Powell
Mel Powell (born Melvin Epstein) (February 12, 1923 – April 24, 1998) was a jazz pianist and composer of classical music.
Melvin Epstein was born in The Bronx, New York City on February 12, 1923 to Russian Jewish parents, Milton Epstein and Mildred Mark Epstein,[1] and began playing piano as a child. He performed jazz professionally in New York City as a teenager. As early as 1939, he was working with Bobby Hackett, George Brunies, and Zutty Singleton. He changed his last name to Powell in 1940.[2]
In 1941-42 he played, composed, and arranged for Benny Goodman. A member of Glenn Miller's Army Air Force Band in 1943-45, he played with Django Reinhardt in Paris at war's end. Powell briefly returned to Goodman's band, then worked in Hollywood after World War II and married actress Martha Scott. In 1948 he played himself in the movie A Song Is Born as the jazz pianist working with Benny Goodman. In this movie he worked along with many other famous jazz players including Louis Armstrong.
After studying at Yale with Paul Hindemith in 1948-1952, he all but gave up jazz for classical composition. He was a member of the composition faculty at Yale from 1958 to 1969, a founder of the Yale Electronic Music Studio and a founding editor of Perspectives of New Music. In 1969 he moved to California to serve as founding dean of the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California. After serving as acting head of the Institute he was awarded the Roy O. Disney Professorship of music, and taught and composed at CalArts until his death. In 1990 he received the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his concerto for two pianos and orchestra,Duplicates.[3]
In 1987 he returned to jazz to play a jazz festival on the cruise ship SS Norway with Benny Carter, Howard Alden, Milt Hinton, and Louie Bellson. One performance has been documented on the CD release The Return of Mel Powell (Chiaroscuro Records). This CD includes twenty minutes of Powell discussing his life and his reasons for leaving jazz.
His notable students include Justin Connolly, Brian Fennelly, Robert Fruehwald, Walter Hekster, Sean Griffin, Arturo Marquez, Cesar Mateus, Lewis Spratlan, John Stewart, Lois V Vierk, John Ferritto, Sally Lamb and Steven Hoey.
He died in Sherman Oaks, California on April 24, 1998, at age 75.
Quotes
- "Serious new music, like serious old music, isn't made to be dribbled around in a basketball arena."
- "The musician's business is structure..."[4]
- "The musician...is...therefore drawn to a profound science of structure. Looking closely at music itself, he is likely to ask: What changes? When? By how much?...he is...able to feel at home where logicians exhibit techniques for isolating relevant structure."[5]
References
- ^ Balliett, Whitney (2005). American Musicians II: Seventy-One Portraits in Jazz, pp. 174-82. University Press of Mississippi.
- ^ Yanow, Scott (2000). Swing, p. 211. San Francisco: Miller Freeman Books.
- ^ 1990 Pulitzer Prizes
- ^ Mel Powell, "A Note on Rigor," Perspectives of New Music, Spring 1963, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963), p. 121.
- ^ Mel Powell, "A Note on Rigor," Perspectives of New Music, Spring 1963, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963), p. 121-122.
External links
- G. Schirmer: Mel Powell Composer profile and work list
- A Multifaceted Musical Personality
- Art of the States: Mel Powell Immobiles (1967)
- GreenManReview.com Review of Powell's The Best Things In Life (Vanguard Records, 1999) by Danny Cohen
- LA Times Obituary 4/25/98, p. 22 (Home edition).
- Solfege, ear training, rhythm, dictation, and music theory : a comprehensive course / Marta Árkossy Ghezzo ; preface by Mel Powell.
- Mel Powell:Remembered by his students
- Mel Powell NPR obituary
- The Mel Powell Papers at Irving S. Gilmore Music Library, Yale University
|
||||||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
Oxford Grove Music Encyclopedia
The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music. Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved.
Read more
AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Artists
Copyright © 2012 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.
Read more
Mentioned in
Buck Meets Ruby
(1954 Album by Buck Clayton)
The Best Things in Life
(1999 Album by Mel Powell)
Bird & Pres
(1946 Album by Charlie Parker with Lester Young)
Best of the Big Bands, Vol. 2
(1941 Album by Benny Goodman)
Solid Gold Instrumental Hits
(1940 Album by Benny Goodman)
» More