Milt Raskin

Milt Raskin ( born January 27, 1916 in Boston, † 16 October 1977 in Los Angeles ) was an American pianist, songwriter and arranger in jazz, exotica and film music.

Life

Milt Raskin learned as a child first saxophone and joined with eleven years of piano. In the 1930s, he studied at the New England Conservatory of Music and then started working at a local radio station in the Boston area before moving to New York City, where he played in 1937 Wingy Manone, 1938/39, with Gene Krupa. After that he belongs to the bands of Teddy Powell and Alvino Rey before he again worked briefly at Krupa; 1942 to 1944 he played in the orchestra of Tommy Dorsey ( " I'll Never Smile Again "). He then moved to Los Angeles, where he only occasionally played with jazz musicians, such as with a 1945 Jazz at the Philharmonic with Billie Holiday, Howard McGhee and Charles Mingus and with Artie Shaw and Georgie Auld; full time, he worked as a studio musician and musical director at MGM and later at Capitol. In 1945, he took the 78 " Nola " on his Milt Raskin 's Hollywood Ragtimers. Throughout his career, he contributed to recordings by Ziggy Elman also, Jimmy Mundy, Anita O'Day and Charlie Ventura as a pianist.

In the Hollywood Studios Raskin led ensembles in recordings by artists such as Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole, Vic Damone, and worked as an arranger with Bill Russo, Billy Strayhorn, Andre Previn, Nancy Wilson and Stan Kenton, in its production Artistry in Voices and Brass (1963 ), he also served as songwriter. With some studio productions Raskin established as representative of the Exotica - style, to listen to the albums Exotic Percussion ( Kapu ) ( Crown ) or Exotic Tahiti. He also worked on numerous film and TV soundtracks, as for the series Merciless town and on the run, for its theme song "Somewhere in the Night ", he wrote the lyrics, as well as his arrangements for the soundtracks of Lawrence of Arabia ( 1962) and Michelangelo - Agony and the Ecstasy (1965).

Songs that Raskin contributed the lyrics were " The Game of Love", composed by Armando Peraza, " Because I Love Him So " and " Boston Beans" by Peggy Lee and " Lost in a Summer Night " by Andre Previn.