Hall Overton
Hall Overton ( born February 23, 1920 in Bangor, Michigan, † November 24, 1972 in New York City, New York) was an American jazz pianist, arranger, composer and music educator.
Life and work
Overton grew up in Grand Rapids on in Michigan and studied from 1940 to 1942 the " Chicago Musical College " and - interrupted by military service in World War II, where he met the jazz - from 1947 to 1951 at New York's Juilliard School (composition with Vincent Persichetti ) and 1953 with Darius Milhaud. He composed chamber music and symphony, dealt since 1946 but also with jazz, played as a pianist in recordings by Teddy Charles, Stan Getz, Phil Woods, Duke Jordan, Oscar Pettiford and Jimmy Raney with. Finally, commissioned him Thelonious Monk with the orchestration of several of his plays; they were performed live at New York's Town Hall on 28 February 1959, and published under the title Thelonious Monk Orchestra at Town Hall. His collaboration with Monk was captured by photographer W. Eugene Smith in image and sound documents, which were published in the Jazz Loft Project 2009.
Monk took 1964 still another live album with orchestral arrangements by Hall Overton in New York's Philharmonic Hall. It was published under the title Big Band & Quartet in Concert. For John Lewis and the Orchestra USA in 1964, he composed the piece " Sonorities ". In 1972 his opera " Huckleberry Finn " was performed one month before his death by the Juilliard Opera Company.
In addition, Hall Overton has as a composer, teacher ( students were Wendell Marshall and Teddy Charles) and music theorists made a name. He worked from the early 1950s at the Juilliard School and also at the Yale School of Music, and from 1962 at the New School for Social Research. Besides well-known jazz musicians, the billionaire Doris Duke was one of his students. His loft on 6th Avenue was a popular meeting place for jam sessions.
He was married to Nancy Swain since 1949 and had two sons; is a comedian and actor Rick Overton.
Disco Graphical Notes
- Teddy Charles: New Directions ( OJC, 1951-53 )
- Jimmy Raney: A ( OJC, 1954-55 )
- Laboratory Series (Signal Records, 1955)
- Stan Getz: Getz Early ( OJC, 1949-53 )