Mel Powell was a jazz pianist and composer of classical music. Powell was born to Russian Jewish parents and began playing piano as a child, and performed jazz professionally in New York City as a teenager. In 1941-42 he played, composed, and arranged for Benny Goodman. A member of Glenn Miller's Army Air Corps Band in 1943-45, he played with Django Reinhardt in Paris at war's end.

PropertyValue
dbpprop:abstract
  • Mel Powell was a jazz pianist and composer of classical music. Powell was born to Russian Jewish parents and began playing piano as a child, and performed jazz professionally in New York City as a teenager. In 1941-42 he played, composed, and arranged for Benny Goodman. A member of Glenn Miller's Army Air Corps Band in 1943-45, he played with Django Reinhardt in Paris at war's end. Powell briefly returned to Goodman's band, then worked in Hollywood after World War II and married actress Martha Scott. In 1948 he played himself in the movie "A Song Is Born" as the jazz pianist working with Benny Goodman. In this movie he worked along with many other famous jazz players including Louis Armstrong. After studying at Yale with Paul Hindemith in 1948-1952 he all but gave up jazz for classical composition. He was a member of the composition faculty at Yale from 1958 to 1969, a founder of the Yale Electronic Music Studio and a founding editor of Perspectives of New Music. In 1969 he moved to California to serve as founding dean of the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, CA. After serving as acting head of the Institute he was awarded the Roy O. Disney Professorship of music, and taught and composed at CalArts until his death. In 1990 he received the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his concerto for two pianos and orchestra, Duplicates. In 1987 he returned to jazz to play a jazz festival on the cruise ship SS Norway with Benny Carter, Howard Alden, Milt Hinton, and Louie Bellson. One performance has been documented on the CD release "The Return of Mel Powell" (Chiaroscuro records). This CD includes twenty minutes of Powell discussing his life and his reasons for leaving jazz. His notable students include Justin Connolly, Brian Fennelly, Walter Hekster, Sean Griffin, Arturo Marquez, Cesar Mateus, Lewis Spratlan, Lois V Vierk, John Ferritto, Sally Lamb and Steven Hoey.
  • Mel Powell, eigentlich Melvin Epstein, war ein US-amerikanischer Jazz-Pianist und klassischer Komponist. Powell begann schon als Teenager in New York Jazz zu spielen. 1941 bis 1942 spielte er, arrangierte und komponierte für Benny Goodman. 1943-45 war er in der Army Airforce Band von Glenn Miller, wobei er zu Kriegsende auch mit Django Reinhardt in Paris gigte. Nach dem Krieg war er kurz wieder bei Goodman, arbeitete dann aber in Hollywood, wo er die Schauspielerin Martha Scott heiratete. In dem Film „A Star is born“ spielte er 1948 sich selbst als Goodman`s Pianisten. 1948 bis 1952 studierte er klassische Komposition bei Paul Hindemith in Yale. In Yale war er von 1958 bis 1969 Mitglied der Fakultät für Komposition, gründete das "Yale Electronic Music Studio“ und war Mitgründer und Herausgeber der „Perspectives of New Music“. 1969 war er Gründungsdirektor des „California Institute of the Arts“ in Valencia (Kalifornien), wo er bis 1978 Dekan (Dean) war und danach Professor für Komposition. 1990 erhielt er für sein Konzert für zwei Klaviere und Orchester „Duplicates“ den Pulitzer Preis für Musik. 1987 spielte er wieder Jazz-Musik mit Benny Carter, Howard Alden, Milt Hinton und Louie Bellson auf der „SS Norway“ (herausgekommen als CD auf Chiascuro Records).
dbpprop:hasPhotoCollection
dbpprop:reference
rdf:type
rdfs:comment
  • Mel Powell was a jazz pianist and composer of classical music. Powell was born to Russian Jewish parents and began playing piano as a child, and performed jazz professionally in New York City as a teenager. In 1941-42 he played, composed, and arranged for Benny Goodman. A member of Glenn Miller's Army Air Corps Band in 1943-45, he played with Django Reinhardt in Paris at war's end.
  • Mel Powell, eigentlich Melvin Epstein, war ein US-amerikanischer Jazz-Pianist und klassischer Komponist. Powell begann schon als Teenager in New York Jazz zu spielen. 1941 bis 1942 spielte er, arrangierte und komponierte für Benny Goodman. 1943-45 war er in der Army Airforce Band von Glenn Miller, wobei er zu Kriegsende auch mit Django Reinhardt in Paris gigte. Nach dem Krieg war er kurz wieder bei Goodman, arbeitete dann aber in Hollywood, wo er die Schauspielerin Martha Scott heiratete.
rdfs:label
  • Mel Powell
  • Mel Powell
owl:sameAs
skos:subject
foaf:page
is dbpedia-owl:Film/starring of
is dbpedia-owl:starring of
is dbpprop:starring of
is owl:sameAs of