Home » Jazz Musicians » Ralph Carmichael

Ralph Carmichael

Sign in / sign up and request update access to the Ralph Carmichael page.


Tags

268
Album Review

Ralph Carmichael's Big Band: Big Band Christmas

Read "Big Band Christmas" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Tremendous Sound. Make no mistake, this is a BIG band disc. Carmichael's band bursts out all over the place with holiday cheer. His arrangements and bubbly and bright, providing a contemporary big band seasonal offering. The arrangements were originally used with another great big band, that of Stan Kenton's in 1961. This current disc was recorded live at Speer Studios in Nashville in 1997. A real treat for big band fans. ...

76
Album Review

Ralph Carmichael: Big Band Classics, Vol. 1

Read "Big Band Classics, Vol. 1" reviewed by Jack Bowers


One problem I have with many of these big–band anthologies is that they’re composed of a few “classics” and a lot of other songs the band likes to play. This is true to a degree in Ralph Carmichael’s salute, but at least the bona fide classics chosen by Carmichael outnumber the rest (by as many as twelve to four or at least ten to six according to my count). And even when using the phrase “big band swing classic” means ...

228
Album Review

Ralph Carmichael: Big Band Gospel Classics

Read "Big Band Gospel Classics" reviewed by Jack Bowers


One can’t help but marvel at how wonderfully these time–honored spirituals and hymns lend themselves to contemporary big–band arrangements. It helps, of course, if the arranger is as sharp and seasoned as Ralph Carmichael, a resourceful “song doctor” who could probably make Lawrence Welk’s or Guy Lombardo’s book swing. And it helps further if the band itself is comprised of some of the most capable studio and big–band musicians in Southern California. Carmichael, it is quite evident, places his ample ...

529
Album Review

Ralph Carmichael Big Band: Ralph Carmichael and Friends Live / Big Band Christmas

Read "Ralph Carmichael and Friends Live / Big Band Christmas" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Ralph Carmichael, one of America’s most prominent born–again bandleaders, has abundant faith in big bands and in their capacity to help deliver a Christian–centered message of love, peace and redemption. Friends Live was recorded at Southern California College in Costa Mesa, 50 years after Carmichael’s graduation, class of ’47. As the song titles — “The Savior Is Waiting,” “His Eye Is on the Sparrow,” “Just a Closer Walk with Thee,” “Be Still My Soul” and so on — make clear, ...

Read more articles
24

Interview

Interview: Ralph Carmichael (Part 3)

Interview: Ralph Carmichael (Part 3)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

In the last years of Nat King Cole's life, he sounded comfortable in the arms of Ralph Carmichael's charts. Admittedly lighter and more commercial than Cole's earlier Capitol dates, these albums need to be put in context. Easy listening LPs like Touch of Your Lips; Lazy Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer and L-O-V-E were indeed lighter than earlier releases and silly in place, they remain period pieces—prime examples of an era when traditional pop was nearly exhausted and at the ...

39

Interview

Interview: Ralph Carmichael (Part 2)

Interview: Ralph Carmichael (Part 2)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Ralph Carmichael likes to arrange strings in clusters. This technique allows him to take the largest possible group of violins, violas and cellos and, by bunching them into groups and voicing them as mini ensembles, he ensures richness and clarity without clutter and sweetness. For Ralph, the goal always is to create a luminous frame for singers and not let the arrangement become cute or shmaltzy. In Part 2 of my three-part conversation with Ralph on his close relationship with ...

128

Interview

Interview: Ralph Carmichael (Part 1)

Interview: Ralph Carmichael (Part 1)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Ralph Carmichael has arranged for Ella Fitzgerald, Bing  Crosby, Stan Kenton, Jack Jones, Peggy Lee, Julie London, Al Martino, Roger Williams and Sue Raney. But he is perhaps best known for his collaborations with Nat King Cole between 1960 and the singer's death in 1965. In fact, each holiday season you hear Carmichael's stereo arrangement of Cole's The Christmas Song. In Part 1 of my three-part conversation with Ralph, 83, on Cole, the arranger talks about growing up in three ...

Music

Similar

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.