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| Claude Thornhill |
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Claude Thornhill (10 August 1909 at Terre Haute, Indiana – 1 July 1965, New York City) was an American pianist, arranger and bandleader.
Career
As a youth, he was recognized as an extraordinary talent and formed a traveling duo with Danny Polo, a musical prodigy on the clarinet and trumpet from nearby Clinton, Indiana. As a student at Garfield High School in Terre Haute, he played with several theater bands.
In 1935, he played on sessions for Glenn Miller's first recordings under his own name, as Glenn Miller and His Orchestra. He played on Glenn Miller's composition "Solo Hop", which was released on Columbia Records.
After playing for Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, Ray Noble, Glenn Miller, and Billie Holiday, and arranging "Loch Lomond" and "Annie Laurie" for Maxine Sullivan, in 1940 he founded his Claude Thornhill Orchestra. Danny Polo was his lead clarinet player. Although the Thornhill band was originally a sophisticated dance band it became known for its many superior jazz musicians and for Thornhill's and Gil Evans' innovative arrangements; its "Portrait of a Guinea Farm" has become a classic jazz recording.
The band played without vibrato so that the timbres of the instruments could be better appreciated, and Thornhill encouraged the musicians to develop cool-sounding tones. The band was popular with both musicians and the public; the Miles Davis Nonet as modelled in part on Thornhill's cool sound and use of unconventional instrumentation. The band's most successful records were "Snowfall," "A Sunday Kind of Love," and "Love for Love."
The band ceased operation in 1942 when Thornhill entered the military, where he performed with Artie Shaw's United States Navy band, then was revived from 1946 to 1948 in New York and until 1953 on the road. In the mid 1950s Thornhill became Tony Bennett's musical director briefly, then toured with small groups. He offered his big band library to Gerry Mulligan when Gerry formed the Concert Jazz Band, but Gerry regretfully declined the gift, since his instrumentation was different. A large portion of his extensive library of music is currently held by Drury University in Springfield, Missouri.
Compositions by Claude Thornhill
Claude Thornhill's compositions included the standard "Snowfall", "Portrait of a Guinea Farm", and "Buster's Last Stand".
Honors
In 1984, Claude Thornhill was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.
External links
- Template:Amg
- Christopher Popa, "The Sound Hung Like a Cloud," bigbandlibrary.com
- Articles needing cleanup from May 2007
- Cleanup tagged articles without a reason field from May 2007
- Misplaced Pages pages needing cleanup from May 2007
- Cool jazz pianists
- Sweet band musicians
- Big band bandleaders
- American jazz pianists
- American jazz bandleaders
- American music arrangers
- 1909 births
- 1965 deaths