Home » Jazz Musicians » Johnny Mandel

Johnny Mandel

Johnny Mandel is an NEA Jazz Master

The eventful career of Johnny Mandel is grounded by a thorough background in music that has resulted in his being acclaimed in the pantheon of American composers, arrangers, record producers and songwriters. His is a career that has had both duration and substance and continues to flourish.

He was born in New York City. At the age of 12, he was playing the trumpet and beginning to write big band arrangements. After graduating from New York Military Academy, where he had received a band scholarship, he immediately went on the road working in the Catskill Mountains at various resort hotels. He then joined the orchestra of the legendary violinist Joe Venuti. He was also a member of the Henry Jerome Orchestra at Child's Paramount Restaurant in Times Square during 1945.

At 19, he was playing trombone and writing arrangements for the revolutionary Boyd Rayburn Orchestra and soon after, the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra. This was followed by stints with Buddy Rich's first band (as well as Rich's 1947 and 1948 bands), the Georgie Auld Orchestra, and Alvino Rey's band, all in 1946. His first important arrangement was written in 1948 when he wrote the classic big band composition for Woody Herman, "Not Really the Blues." He also wrote for Artie Shaw and his only bebop-oriented orchestra, which was recently showcased in the MusicMasters album 1949.

Around this time, Johnny attended Juilliard and the Manhattan School of Music in order to study symphonic forms and how to write for the symphony orchestra. These studies were later continued with Stephan Volpe in New York and subsequently with George Tremblay in Los Angeles.

Also in 1949, Johnny joined the music department at radio station WMGM, where he wrote arrangements for the staff orchestra. He had his first experience in composing dramatic music for the series, The MGM Theatre of the Air, at the very end of the era of radio dramas. In 1950 and 1951, he was an arranger for one of the most important television variety shows of all time, Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows.

He spent most of 1952 working with the great jazz orchestra of Elliott Lawrence. In 1953 he joined the Count Basie Orchestra on trombone, shortly after Basie had reformed his orchestra and remained for a year, although he first started writing for the Basie band in 1952 and continued to write for the band until 1956 as "The Most Explosive Force in Jazz" returned to prominence. The Basie band recorded Mandel's well-known composition, "Straight Life" in 1953. He remembers the period working for Count Basie as the most enjoyable experience of his musical life. He observed, "I couldn't wait to get to work every night."

Read more

Tags

215
Album Review

Johnny Mandel Featuring Sherrie Maricle and the Diva Jazz Orchestra: The Man and His Music: Johnny Mandel Conducts the Music of Mandel

Read "The Man and His Music: Johnny Mandel Conducts the Music of Mandel" reviewed by Robert J. Robbins


In May, 2010, legendary composer/arranger Johnny Mandel performed three evenings with the all-female DIVA Jazz Orchestra at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, immaculately preserved in this release. In this rare appearance in his native Manhattan, the Los Angeles-based Mandel returned decidedly to his big band roots, which included service in brass sections, more than five decades ago, with Jimmy Dorsey, Buddy Rich and Count Basie, amongst others. He also demonstrates that his musical genius remains undiminished, engaging in genial musical descriptions between ...

Read more articles

Video / DVD

Johnny Mandel in 20 Tracks

Johnny Mandel in 20 Tracks

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Yesterday, I posted my complete 2008 interview with Johnny Mandel. But what did his music sound like over the decades and what made him so special? Here are my 20 favorite arrangements by Johnny, starting in 1944: Here's Johnny's arrangement of Magic Is the Moonlight for Boyd Raeburn in 1944... Here's Johnny's arrangement of his Krazy Kat for Artie Shaw in 1949... Here's Johnny's arrangement of his Innuendo for Shaw in '49... Here's Johnny's arrangement of Not Really the Blues ...

Obituary

Johnny Mandel (1925-2020)

Johnny Mandel (1925-2020)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Johnny Mandel, a elegant arranger, composer, conductor and bass trumpeter who began his career writing for big bands in the 1940s, crossed over to jazz in the '50s and wound up scoring movies in the late 1950s and beyond, including main titles that became standards, died June 29. He was 94. Like other player-arrangers of the era, including Neal Hefti, Quincy Jones and Henry Mancini, Johnny settled in Los Angeles and tailored his passion for jazz to the commercial demands ...

1

Video / DVD

Johnny Mandel at the Movies

Johnny Mandel at the Movies

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Another jazz artist who became a spectacular composer, arranger and conductor for the movies starting in the late 1950s is Johnny Mandel. His haunting love themes, sweeping strings and nocturnal horns were more brooding and jazz influenced than any other Hollywood arranger. Here are 10 of my favorite Johnny Mandel scores: Here's the main theme from I Want to Live (1957), with Gerry Mulligan on baritone saxophone... Here's Emily from The Americanization of Emily (1964)... Here's The Shadow of Your ...

1

Recording

Johnny Mandel: Krazy Kat

Johnny Mandel: Krazy Kat

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

By the late 1940s, most of the marquee big bands fronted by Swing Era bandleaders featured bebop arrangements. Bebop's popularity at the end of the decade owed a great deal to the increased influence of jazz disc jockeys, concert promoters and writers who championed the new music. Developed mid-decade by African-American musicians such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke and Max Roach as well as a handful of white musicians including Stan Levey, Shelly Manne and Al ...

1

Recording

Johnny Mandel: Harper, 1966

Johnny Mandel: Harper, 1966

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

In 1966, Paul Newman starred in Harper, a film about a private investigator with a spent marriage who takes a challenging case 90 miles north of Los Angeles to get away from it all. In today's world, it's a TV pilot at best, but in the cool '60s, studios didn't need much of an excuse to put Newman in gear. The Harper soundtrack is a different matter. Composed and conducted by Johnny Mandel, with orchestration by Bill Holman, Billy Byers ...

Recording

Johnny Mandel: 7 Tribute CDs

Johnny Mandel: 7 Tribute CDs

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Yesterday, around 2 p.m., I became stuck on Cal Tjader's The Shining Sea, which was written by Johnny Mandel for The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming in 1966. The track features Scott Hamilton on tenor sax and is one of the most beautiful renditions of the song. Which made me realize there really aren't any bad Johnny Mandel tribute albums, which by default means there aren't any bad Johnny Mandel songs. All jazz artists and vocalists who have ...

110

Interview

Johnny Mandel's Shadow and Smile

Johnny Mandel's Shadow and Smile

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

There's something about watching Johnny Mandel rehearse a big band that takes your breath away. Yesterday I had the rare pleasure of watching Johnny conduct the DIVA Jazz Orchestra in advance of their performances tonight, tomorrow and Wednesday at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola in New York (go here for information and reservations). [Photo of Johnny Mandel conducting The Shadow of Your Smile by Marc Myers]

This is the same Johnny Mandel who wrote blockbuster arrangements for Artie Shaw, Woody Herman, Chet ...

249

Interview

Johnny Mandel on Streisand (Part 2)

Johnny Mandel on Streisand (Part 2)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Everyone in the music business loves Johnny Mandel, from jazz artists and pop singers to record and movie producers. It's easy to see why. As one of America's most gifted composers and arrangers, Johnny has spent much of his 65-year career making bands, singers and musicians sound superb. When Johnny writes a song or orchestral score, you can hear the history of American popular music in his melodic and harmonic choices. What's more, Johnny can craft an arrangement so it's ...

264

Interview

Johnny Mandel on Streisand (Part 1)

Johnny Mandel on Streisand (Part 1)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Table your politics and any pre-conceived notions about Barbra Streisand. In fact, forget everything you know about her. If you can do this, you'll find that her new album, Love Is the Answer, is a beautifully crafted document of vocal warmth and arranging. Rather than turn out another battleship-sized production that winds up too many miles from your heart, Streisand here is intimate, familiar and downright cozy. To be fair, the new album's seductive power owes a great deal to ...

Photos

Music

Similar

Henry Mancini
composer / conductor
Marty Paich
composer / conductor

Get more of a good thing!

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