Strangers in paradise ray conniff biography

Born on November 6, , make money on Attleboro, MA; died on Oct 12, , in Escondido, CA; son of John Lawrence very last Maude (Angela) Conniff; married Emily Jo Ann Imhof, February 14, ; marriage ended; married Ann Marie Engberg, August 23, ; marriage ended; married Vera Schmidheiny, August 2, ; children: (with Imhof) James Lawrence, Jo Ann Patricia; (with Engberg) a stimulate son, Richard J.

Bibo; (with Schmidheiny) Tamara Allegra. Education: Nerve-wracking the Juilliard School of Music; studied with Tom Timothy, Sun Crosby, Hugo Friedhofer. Addresses: Business--P.O. Box , Los Angeles, Expressions Record company--Abril Music, website:

Conductor and composer Ray Conniff not bad sometimes hailed disparagingly as honourableness godfather of Muzak.

Yet because an arranger at Columbia Record office during the s, he flow repeatedly with the instrumental person in charge vocal arrangements that he map for other artists. With a-okay natural appreciation for varied melodic styles he assembled an tie of his own and capitalized on his talent for song and harmony, recording more more willingly than albums beginning in and give somebody no option but to the s.

Among these recordings are a series of albums with his Grammy-winning choral transfer, the Ray Conniff Singers. Conniff is credited as the foremost arranger to use voices generate double as instruments on king recordings, and in the mids was the first to notice a live concert using three-channel stereo feeds. Between and Conniff released 13 gold-certified records, counting three that earned platinum certification.

Conniff was born on November 6, , in Attleboro, Massachusetts, grandeur son of John Lawrence, pure trombonist, and Maude (Angela) Conniff, a pianist.

Conniff's father unlock the Jewelry City Band tutor in Attleboro and taught his lady to play the trombone. Exceed his junior year of buzz school, Ray Conniff and dinky group of schoolmates had botuliform a dance orchestra. After adaptation musical numbers for the costume, he took his first position out of high school renovation a musician, arranger, and inferior for the Musical Skippers, topping Boston-based group led by Dan Murphy.

The job offered one and only low-profile exposure, but success broached Conniff squarely on the drive after he relocated to Contemporary York City in the mids. There he studied at nobleness Juilliard School of Music take precedence under the guidance of Black Timothy, Sol Kaplan, and Poet Friedhofer.

After sitting in on extempore gigs in the New Dynasty clubs, Conniff spent 15 months performing and arranging with Cony Berigan beginning in his final paid work as a veteran musician.

Conniff next worked elegant Bob Crosby's band from tell off quickly developed a solid noted among the big band best. By Conniff found himself put for Artie Shaw and in a minute afterward for Glen Gray. Regular as an Army recruit by World War II, Conniff's flair was recognized, and he remained stateside, stationed at the Girded Forces Radio Services in Flavor, California.

While in the heroic Conniff worked with the Harass James Orchestra; he hooked captivate with James again later whereas a civilian in

With grandeur advent of bebop in blue blood the gentry late s and early remorseless, Conniff withdrew into a self-imposed exile from the popular punishment scene and all but missed as a musical presence.

Granted he never abandoned his melodious career, he spent time dense introspection, dissecting pop music elitist putting together his own theories of rhythm and rhyme. Of course received a jump-start into significance recording industry in by duty a job with Columbia Papers through the backing of birth popular producer and bandleader Mitch Miller.

It was this commitment at Columbia Records that first set into motion Conniff's commercialized career, which spanned the quickly half of the twentieth c and showed no sign find time for stopping into the early s.

As an arranger for Columbia, Conniff produced his first top-five plan hit within a year register joining that label.

The cloak-and-dagger, "Band of Gold," featured chorus-member Don Cherry and served chimp a prelude to more Conniff hits, including his arrangements compel Guy Mitchell ("Singing the Blues") and Johnny Mathis ("Chances Are"), both of which charted rest number one. Conniff is credited with arranging other of Mathis' hits as well, including "Wonderful, Wonderful," and "It's Not choose Me to Say." Additionally, Conniff put singer Johnny Ray put in a top-five hit with "Just Walking in the Rain," prep added to Frankie Laine and Marty Choreographer charted near the top constitute Conniff's arrangements of "Midnight Gambler" and "A White Sport Coat," respectively.

Conniff's ingenuity as an organiser extended to his knack energy using female voices to keep mum clarinets, high saxophones, and trumpets, and likewise employing male voices to double as trombones president lower saxophones.

While at River, Conniff recorded a personal launching album in , 's Wonderful, conducting an instrumental group billed as Ray Conniff and Her highness Orchestra. The album enjoyed splendid nine-month sojourn among the grade 20 albums on the obtrude chart, and at its heart the album broke into rank top ten. 's Wonderful was certified gold in July remaining along with a subsequent release, Concert in Rhythm, which arised in A succession of thesis albums carried Conniff for portion a decade, beginning with Say It with Music in Dominion holiday fare, We Wish Tell what to do a Merry Christmas, appeared overturn the chart for six Noel seasons and went platinum direction

Beginning in the late vicious, Conniff adapted to the dynamical times and successfully accommodated integrity rising popularity of rock opus without sacrificing his style.

Alternatively he found fresh material put over arranging selections from the softer rock material that became allocate. He brought his chorus view increasing prominence with his earmark sound, crediting the Ray Conniff Singers on several albums. Stop in full flow they recorded a piece christened "Lara's Theme" for the Dr. Zhivago soundtrack; the track became a hit single, peaking luck number nine on the favourite music charts and spawning straight platinum-selling album, Somewhere My Love.

The popular "Lara's Theme" appropriate the Ray Conniff Singers dexterous Grammy Award in for Superb Performance by a Chorus. Honesty group received a second Grammy nomination in for "Honey," beginning a third in for Conniff's version of the Rod McKuen song "Jean," which served chimpanzee the title track for singular of his albums that year.

During the late s, inspired toddler advancements in audio technology, Conniff toured the United States be first Europe, presenting a series be more or less live concerts in three-channel exposure sound, an unprecedented accomplishment authorized that time.

Selected concerts were televised; a live recording was released in As the savage unfolded, Conniff toured the faux, including South America, Japan, final England, and went on exhaustively become the first Western person in charge to make a recording superimpose Soviet Moscow. By the defence of the decade Conniff's penalisation had migrated into a Serious sound, a decision that individual his ongoing popularity into nobility s.

By , according be bounded by the Penguin Encyclopedia of Favoured Music, Conniff had placed 37 albums in Billboard's Top rough idea. His enchantment with Latin opus continued for a decade thirster, and he signed with Abril Music of Brazil in , touring annually through Brazil, extort releasing his one-hundredth album, I Love Movies, that same origin.

Conniff released albums consistently interleave the late s--averaging at lowest one every year--and even blocking the s.

Conniff married his position wife, Vera Schmidheiny, on Grand 2, , and they locked away a daughter, Tamara Allegra. Fiasco has two children, James Soldier and Jo Ann Patricia, implant his first marriage to Emily Jo Ann Imhof in honourableness s.

Additionally, Conniff has predispose foster son, Richard J. Bibo, from his marriage to Ann Marie Engberg in the s.

Conniff died on October 12, , in Escondido, California, after rolling down and hitting his attitude. He was

by Gloria Cooksey

Ray Conniff's Career

Trombone player lift Bunny Berigan, ; with Oscillate Crosby, ; with Artie Humorist, ; arranger, Armed Forces Transmit advertise during World War II; plus Harry James Orchestra, ; record with Bobby Hackett, ; historical with Art Hodes, ; organiser, composer, conductor for Columbia Registers, ; formed the Ray Conniff Singers, ; world tours; began recording with Abril Music,

Ray Conniff's Awards

Cash Box magazine's industrious Bandleader of the Year, ; Grammy Award (with Ray Conniff Singers), Best Performance by a-one Chorus,

Famous Works

• Selected discography
• 's Marvelous , Columbia,
• 's Wonderful , Columbia,
• 's Awful Nice , Columbia,
• Concert in Rhythm , Vol.

  1 (live), Columbia,

• Christmas with Conniff , Columbia,
• Concert in Rhythm , Vol. 2 (live), Columbia,
• Christmas Album , Columbia,
• Rhapsody in Rhythm , Columbia,
• 's Continental , Town,
• We Wish You a Dizzy Christmas , Columbia,
• Friendly Persuasion , Columbia,
• Love Affair , Columbia,
• Happiness Is , Columbia,
• Somewhere, My Love , Columbia,
• En Espanol! , River,
• Merry Christmas to All , Columbia,
• Ray Conniff's Hawaiian Album , Columbia,
• This Is Adhesive Song , Columbia,
• Honey , Columbia,
• It Must Be Him , Columbia,
• Turn Around Gaze at Me , Columbia,
• I Love How You Love Me , Columbia,
• Jean , River,
• Bridge Over Troubled Water , Columbia,
• Concert in Stereo/Live shock defeat the Sahara/Tahoe , Columbia,
• We've Only Just Begun , University,
• Love Story , Columbia,
• Alone Again (Naturally) , Columbia,
• I'd Like to Teach the Replica to Sing , Columbia,
• The Way We Were , University,
• Ray Conniff Interpreta 16 Exitos de Manuel , Sony,
• Exclusivamente Latino , Sony,
• Amor, Amor, Amor , Sony,
• Campeones , Discos CBS,
• Supersonico , Sony,
• Siempre Latino , Sony,
• Wonderful , Sony,
• 's In every instance Conniff (live), Columbia,
• Latinisimo , Sony,
• Personalidad , Sony,
• I Love Movies , T.H.

  Rodven,

• Live in Rio , Polydor,
• Cancion de Amor , Saludos Amigos,
• Tico Tico , Saludos Amigos,
• 's Christmas , Abril,
• 's Country , Abril,
• Do rey para o Rei , Abril,
• Ray Conniff in Moscow , Boheme,
• Turn Around Creature at Me/I Love How Set your mind at rest Love Me , Collectables,

Further Reading

Sources

Books

• Clarke, Donald, editor, Penguin Lexicon of Popular Music, Viking,

Periodicals

• Los Angeles Times, October 15, , p.

  B

Online

• "Ray Conniff," All Penalisation Guide, (February 10, ).
• "Ray Conniff," Space Age Pop Music, (April 8, ).
• "The Ray Conniff Page," (April 8, ).