Larry Elgart
Larry Elgart ( born March 20, 1922 in New London (Connecticut) is an American bandleader and alto saxophonist of the swing and dance music.
He is the brother of trumpeter Les Elgart (1917-1995) and son of a concert pianist. Through the mediation of Hymie Shertzer Larry Elgart came as a saxophonist in the band of Charlie Spivak. After that he played with Woody Herman, Red Norvo, Freddie Slack, and Tommy Dorsey. With his brother he founded Les mid -1940s, his own dance band (Les & Larry Elgart Band), which was initially not very successful despite arrangements by Nelson Riddle, Bill Finegan, Ralph Flanagan, later sold to Tommy Dorsey. There were external circumstances that a general big-band dying end of the 1940s brought about, so that both their brothers big band also disbanded and temporarily worked again as sidemen.
The change came in the early 1950s when Larry Elgart with the composer and saxophonist Charles Albertine, with whom he starred in a Broadway orchestra, some experimental albums recorded: Impressions of Outer Space (Brunswick, 1953) and later Music for Barefoot Ballerinas ( Decca, 1955). Although these were commercially very successful ( and later Collectibles were ), they got to know the benefits that had been made by the advances in recording technology since the end of the big band era. They established the mid- 1950s, which became known as Elgart sound and was achieved by precise arrangements to the placement of the microphones in the recordings. In particular, the rhythm section was so easier Beat play ( the piano was accounted for ). There was almost no more and saxophones and brass instruments played tightly synchronized solos. That was the beginning of a whole series of successful albums on major labels as RCA Victor, Columbia Records, Decca and MGM, beginning with Sophisticated Swing at Columbia in 1953.
In 1954 she recorded the theme song of the legendary television dance music show Bandstand, Bandstand Boogie the (based on a composition by Albertine ). The show ran for 30 years at ABC.
End of the 1950s, the brothers parted, and in each band under his own name for studio recordings. The Elgart sound had now lost its appeal and Larry tried new with Al Cohn as an arranger. In 1963, the brothers got together for a short time again. Les Elgart retired after back to Texas ( where he occasionally again a big band put together ), while Larry Elgart carried on until the 2000s. In the 1960s, they took new contemporary rock and pop impulses ( with arranger Bobby Scott, who replaced from 1963 Albertine ). In the 1980s, he had great success with Hooked on Swing sound à la James Last.