Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Southern California Fires Hit the Jazz Community
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
Neal Hefti, composer and arranger for the jazz orchestras of Woody Herman and Count Basie, and creator of the theme for the ‘60s television show “Batman,” died Saturday of undetermined causes at his home in Toluca Lake, Calif. He was 85.
Hefti began his music career as a trumpeter with Charlie Barnet’s band. Influenced by the bebop style of players like Dizzy Gillespie, Hefti developed a reputation as an influential arranger and composer for fellow jazz artists. He began working with Woody Herman’s orchestra in the mid-‘40s, composing tunes like “Apple Honey” and “Wild Root.” He is often credited with shifting the swing orchestra’s style towards bebop.
By the late ‘40s, Hefti left playing to concentrate on composing, recording with his own studio band. Popular recordings like Repetition, which featured Charlie Parker, and Coral Reef, led Hefti to form his own touring band for a few years in the 1950s.
His compositions for the Count Basie band in the 1950s were among his most famous, which include tunes like “Cute,” “Little Darlin’” and “Splanky.”
Hefti found success in the 1960s writing television and film scores that included Neil Simon’s “Barefoot In The Park” and “Last Of The Red Hot Lovers,” and the themes for both versions of “The Odd Couple.” He received his only Grammy award in 1966 for penning the “Batman” theme. By then, Hefti was an in-demand composer and arranger, working with artists like Frank Sinatra, Mel Tormé, Doris Day and Tony Bennett.
Born into a musical family from Hastings, Neb., Hefti received a trumpet for Christmas at age 10, which he was said to have taken to immediately. He won several prizes in school competitions and began writing arrangements for dance bands while still in high school.
Gerald and John Clayton at the family home in Altadena during a photo shoot for the June 2022 cover of DownBeat. The house was lost during the Los Angeles fires.
Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
“She said, ‘A lot of people are going to try and stop you,’” Sheryl Bailey recalls of the advice she received from jazz guitarist Emily Remler (1957–’90). “‘They’re going to say you slept with somebody, you’re a dyke, you’re this and that and the other. Don’t listen to them, and just keep playing.’”
Feb 3, 2025 10:49 PM
In the April 1982 issue of People magazine, under the heading “Lookout: A Guide To The Up and Coming,” jazz…
The Old Country: More From The Deer Head Inn arrives 30 years after ECM issued the Keith Jarret Trio live album At The Deer Head Inn.
Jan 21, 2025 7:38 PM
Last November, Keith Jarrett, who has not played publicly since suffering two strokes in 2018, greenlighted ECM to drop…
As Ted Nash, left, departs the alto saxophone chair for LCJO, Alexa Tarantino steps in as the band’s first female full-time member.
Mar 4, 2025 1:29 PM
If only because openings for JLCO’s 15 permanent positions appear about as frequently as sub-freezing days on the…
Larry Appelbaum with Wayne Shorter in 2012.
Feb 25, 2025 10:49 AM
Larry Appelbaum, a distinguished audio engineer, jazz journalist, historian and broadcaster, died Feb. 21, 2025, in…
