William Russo (musician)

William Joseph "Bill" Russo, Jr. ( born June 25, 1928 in Chicago, Illinois, † January 11, 2003 ) was an American jazz musician (trombone, piano ), composer and arranger.

Life and work

Russo went along with Lee Konitz on the High School and then studied law. He took from 1943 to 1947 private lessons with Lennie Tristano. He first played in the groups of Billie Rogers and Clyde McCoy before he founded in 1947 the ensemble experiment in jazz. Between 1950 and 1955 he worked as a trombonist and arranger for Stan Kenton, whose sound he helped to shape crucial at this stage, as on the album New Concepts of Artistry in Rhythm by 1952. 1955, he worked in Europe with its own quintet to the Hans Koller and Kurt Edelhagen included. Since the mid- 1950s Russo was increasingly active as a music educator, first at the Lenox School of Jazz, 1959-1961 then. At the Manhattan School of Music He also worked for local groups before 1958 a large orchestra put together.

Since the early 1960s, the Russo focused on composing symphonic works, operas and ballets. This led to projects with Leonard Bernstein, Yehudi Menuhin, Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie. As a composer, he took advantage of the possibilities of the Third Stream and classic techniques used in jazz (eg, counterpoint, acquisition of large shape models ) and stylistic elements of jazz in works of classical music. In 1965 he went to Columbia College in Chicago as director of the Contemporary American Music Program, where he founded the first and 1968 existing and 1991 revived Chicago Jazz Ensemble as one of the first repertory orchestra in the field of jazz. Between 1975 and 1979 he interrupted his teaching to work for the movie studios. In 1990 he finished his time professor in Chicago. One of his most famous composition pupil, the film composer John Barry.

Russo has written several textbooks, so Composing for Jazz Orchestra (Chicago 1961) and Jazz Composition and Orchestration (Chicago 1968).

Discography

• Shelly Manne / Bill Russo: Deep People ( Savoy MG 12045 1951 /52)

Awards

For his album Street Music in 1977 he received the Grand prix du disque; also a Grammy was awarded to him for his life's work.

External links and sources

• Obituary (English)
• Martin Kunzler, Jazz Encyclopedia, vol 2, 2002. ISBN 3-499-16513-9 keyword " Bill Russo "
• Howard Reich Remembering William Russo: A major celebration in store (2013 )