Matt Dennis

Matt Dennis ( born February 11, 1914 in Seattle as Matthew Loveland Dennis, † June 21, 2002 in Riverside ( California)) was an American jazz pianist, singer, arranger and songwriter, best known in the 1940s and 1950s by songs like " Angel Eyes " and " Everything Happens to Me" was.

Life and work

Matt Dennis' mother was a violinist and his father was a singer; by appearances in vaudeville Dennis came early with the music scene in touch. Horace Heidts 1933 Orchestra vocalist and pianist; with the singer Dick Haymes thereafter he founded his own formation. Eventually he became an arranger and accompanist for Martha Tilton and worked with the vocal group Stafford Sisters. As one of the sisters, Jo Stafford, Tommy Dorsey's band in 1940 moved in, she could convince the bandleader to hire Dennis as arranger and composer. In one year alone were recorded with the Dorsey band fourteen of Dennis' songs; most famous title was " Everything Happens to Me", which was an early hit for Frank Sinatra. During this time, a first recording under his own name was; with Gil Evans as arranger, he took his composition " Relax" on with the vocal group Six Hits and a Miss.

After three and a half years of military service with the United States Air Force during the Second World War, when he was an arranger for Glenn Miller, Dennis worked again as a songwriter and arranger for Dick Haymes, who made him musical director of his radio program; with the lyricist Tom Adair he wrote songs for Haymes ' program. In the late 1940s, he settled in Los Angeles, where he appeared as soloist in clubs, and later also in a duo with his wife, singer Virginia " Ginny " Maxey.

Dennis took a total of six albums under his own name, where musicians such as Jimmy Rowles, Don Fagerquist, Howard Roberts and Alvin Stoller participated. Best known his songs "Angel Eyes" were from 1953, which he wrote with lyricist Earl Brent and later, among others was sung by Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Sting, as well as the interpretations of Miles Davis / Sonny Rollins entitled " Will You Still Be Mine"; John Coltrane played his 1957 Kompositoon " Violets for Your Furs ". On his 1958 RCA album created Plays and Sings Matt Dennis plays and sings twelve of his most famous tracks. In 1991 he recorded the album Angel Eyes with Ginny Maxey.

For the author Will Friedwald Dennis belongs to the series of influenced by singer Mel Tormé.

Songs by Matt Dennis

  • Angel Eyes
  • Everything Happens to Me
  • Let's Get Away from It All
  • Little Man With A Candy Cigar
  • The Night We Called It a Day
  • Will You Still Be Mine
  • Compared To You
  • Junior and Julie
  • It Was not the Stars

Disco Graphical Notes

  • Dennis, Anyone? (RCA, BMG, 1955)
  • She Dances Overhead: The Songs of Rodgers and Hart (RCA / BMG, 1955)
  • Play My Melancholy Baby ( RCA / BMG, 1956) with Don Fagerquist
  • Plays and Sings Matt Dennis (RCA / Universal, 1958)
  • Welcome Matt Dennis (Jubilee Records, 1959)

Swell

  • Bielefeld catalog 1988 & 2002
  • Richard Cook & Brian Morton: The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings, 8th Edition, London, Penguin, 2006 ISBN 0-141-02327-9
  • Will Friedwald: Swinging Voices of America - A compendium of great voices. Hannibal, St. Andrew - Woerdern, 1992. ISBN 3-85445-075-3
Riverside, California Vocal jazz Everything Happens to Me (song) Comédie en vaudeville Richard Cook (journalist) Brian Morton (Scottish writer) Leonard Feather Integrated Authority File
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