Manny Albam

Manny Albam, actually Emmanuel Albam (* June 24, 1922 in Samana, Dominican Republic; † 2 October 2001 in Croton-on -Hudson, New York ) was a jazz baritone saxophonist, bandleader, composer, arranger and music teacher.

Life and work

Albam came as a child to New York, a high school student in New York City and began in 1940 on the alto saxophone, before switching to baritone. In the 1940s he worked, inter alia, with Muggsy Spanier (1941 ), Bob Chester ( 1942), Georgie Auld (1942 to 1945), Boyd Raeburn, Bobby Sherwood, Sam Donahue (1947 ), Herbie Fields and Charlie Barnet (1948 /49). He tended to swing and bebop and in 1950 began working as an arranger for big band leaders like Count Basie, Stan Kenton and Woody Herman, as well as a large number of small jazz groups, as described by Terry Gibbs. In the 1950s he recorded a number of albums; the best known were the two albums The Jazz Greats of Our Time, Vol 1 & 2 with Nick Travis, Art Farmer, Conte Candoli, Jack Sheldon, Harry Sweets Edison, Charlie Mariano, Bill Holman, Richie Kamuca, Pepper Adams, Gerry Mulligan, Hank Jones, Shelly Manne, respectively, developed in two sessions in New York and Los Angeles. Caused a sensation in the late 1950s, his album Jazz New York, where the young Bill Evans participated.

In later years he moved his activities to teaching and film music. He taught at the Eastman School of Music. In 1966 he built with Sonny Lester and Phil Ramone on the United Artists sub-label Solid State, which existed until 1969. After the completion of his teaching in the 1990s, he was again active as a composer and arranger, including Hank Jones and the Meridian String Quartet, the SDR Big Band in Stuttgart, Joe Lovano Celebrating Sinatra Project with chamber orchestra and the singer Nancy Marano with the Dutch Metropole Orkest.

Disco Graphical Notes

• The Jazz Workshop ( RCA, 1955) with Nick Travis, Joe Newman, Thad Jones, Urbie Green, Bob Brookmeyer, Hal McKusick, Al Cohn, Sol Schlinger, Milt Hinton
• The Drum Suite (RCA, 1956) with Hank Jones, Hal McKusick, Jimmy Cleveland, Bernie Glow
• The Blues is Everybody's Business ( Gambit, 1955-57 ) with Bernie Glow, Phil Woods, Gene Quill, Eddie Costa, Nat Pierce, Billy Bauer
• Jazz Greats of Our Time ( Lonehill Jazz 1957 /58)
• Jazz New York ( Lonehill Jazz 1959 /59) with Donald Byrd, Frank Rehak, Jerome Richardson, Bill Evans, Dick Katz, Addison Farmer, Osie Johnson, Ed Shaughnessy
• Some New, Something Blue ( 1959)

Source

• Carlo Bohländer et al: Reclams jazz leader. Stuttgart, 1989