Walter Lang

• Active: 2000s
• Genres: Jazz
• Instrument: Piano, Arranger, Producer
• Representative Albums: "Ashiya," "Tales of 2 Cities," "Sound of a Rainbow"

Biography

As a young child, Walter Lang was immersed in a household vibrating with his father and grandfather's lively accordion and piano playing. He joyously began his own musical training on the piano when he was nine years old. Raised in Germany, Lang went to Boston to attend the Berklee College of Music, and then returned to Europe to graduate from the Amsterdam School of the Arts.

Blending his unique jazz rhythm with the skills of talented friends, Lang helped found the Rick Hollander Quartet. The group toured almost constantly throughout the '90s, covering America, Japan, and Europe many times. In between travels, they managed to create five CDs and in 1990, the quartet won the Europ' Jazz Contest in Hoeilaart, Belgium.

During this same time, Lang, as an active freelance pianist, played with artists such as James Moody, Don Menza, and Chico Freeman. As a lively jazz artist in Munich, Germany, he worked with Harald Rueschenbaum, the Jason Seizer Quartet, and Johannes Herrlich's Collage. The town of Gersthofen, Germany, awarded Lang its Artist of the Year award in 1998, showing its deep appreciation for his unique style.

In 1997, Lang formed his own trio with Rick Hollander (drums) and Nic Thy (bass). Their first release was Walter Lang Trio Plays Charles Chaplin, which showcased the beloved music of the comedian. It was co-produced with Radio DRS in Switzerland, recorded in Zurich, and released by the Japanese label Nippon Crown.

Lang started the new millenium by recording his Tales of 2 Cities with Ekkehard Roessle on sax, Karoline Hoefler on bass, Peter Tuscher on trumpet, and his longtime friend, Rick Hollander, on drums. The CD was released on the Double Moon label, and provided the diversity of Lang's talent an opportunity to express itself in the merged rhythms of the lively South Americas and the classical North Americas, plus adding popular tunes from America. The result was appropriate for Lang: breathtaking. ~ Eleanor Ditzel, All Music Guide

746 Buy this CD	Across the Universe: Beatles Song Book Buy this CD	Romantische Strabe Buy this CD	Softly as in a Morning Sunrise Buy this CD	Art of Romanticism, Vol. 1 Buy this CD
Ashiya Buy this CD	Smile: The Music of Chaplin Buy this CD	Sound of a Rainbow Buy this CD	Lotus Blossom Buy this CD

• Born: Aug 10, 1898 in Memphis, Tennessee
• Died: Feb 07, 1972 in Palm Springs, California
• Occupation: Director, Writer, Actor
• Active: '20s-'50s
• Major Genres: Comedy, Drama
• Career Highlights: The King and I, When My Baby Smiles at Me, The Blue Bird
• First Major Screen Credit: Steel Preferred (1925)

Biography

After a checkered early career as actor, illustrator, stage director and assistant film director, Walter Lang was hired by Dorothy Davenport -- aka Mrs. Wallace Reid -- to wield the megaphone on her "socially conscious" features (Davenport developed this consciousness after her husband died of morphine addiction). Lang's first feature-film directorial credit was The Red Kimono (1925), a delicately handled prostitution drama. After parting company with Davenport, Lang worked at the fledgling Columbia Pictures, briefly shelving his career during the early talkie era to try his luck as a commercial artist. Back in Hollywood in 1932, Lang inaugurated his long association with Fox Studios (later 20th Century-Fox) with The Warrior's Husband (1932). Lang's Fox output consisted mainly of frothy romantic comedies and lush Technicolor musicals. He was instrumental in developing the movie stardom of Clifton Webb (an "overnight success" after a lifetime in the business) with such delightful vehicles as Sitting Pretty (1947) and Cheaper by the Dozen (1950).

In 1954, Lang directed Fox's first Cinemascope musical, There's No Business Like Show Business; a year earlier, he'd directed the studio's last non-Cinemascope musical, Call Me Madam (1953). It might seem an ignominy that Walter Lang's final film was Snow White and the Three Stooges (1961), but in fact this slapstick confection was produced with the same high-budget gloss as Lang's earlier Fox endeavors (it should be noted in passing that this was Lang's second collaboration with the Stooges: in 1933, he directed Moe, Larry and Curly in Meet the Baron). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Snow White and the Three Stooges Buy this Movie	Can-Can Buy this Movie	But Not for Me Buy this Movie	Desk Set Buy this Movie
The King and I Buy this Movie	There's No Business Like Show Business Buy this Movie	The Jackpot Buy this Movie	State Fair Buy this Movie

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