World-class bassist Bill Crow has written of Manny Albam, “Manny was one of the good guys. His sweet nature endeared him to everyone who met him, and he wrote music that we loved to play.”

Albam had an impressive career as a composer-arranger for over fifty years. His music ran the gamut of jazz, pop, and classical music, and his ensembles were usually filled with the top musicians on the scene. Several of his albums are required listening for arrangers and composers, and are still getting radio airplay. In later years, in addition to his writing and conducting, Albam became a respected educator at colleges and summer workshops.

Albam’s parents were emigrating from Lithuania to New York when Emmanual Albam was born on June 24, 1922 en route in Samana in the Dominican Republic. He grew up listening to his mother’s opera record collection, but at the age of seven, he heard a record by Bix Beiderbecke, and was immediately taken with jazz. He studied clarinet and saxophone, and by the age of 16, he left school and became a professional musician.

He played with trumpeter Muggsy Spanier and big bands led by Lee Castle and Herbie Field, and later joined saxophonist George Auld’s big band as a baritone saxophonist. One of Auld’s arrangers was Budd Johnson, a veteran saxophonist/arranger who became Albam’s mentor. Now part of the New York jazz scene, Albam was surrounded by the leaders of the modern jazz movement. In 1947, he was the baritone saxophonist in Neal Hefti’s studio big band backing Charlie Parker when the saxophonist recorded “Repetition.”

After writing for trumpeter Pee Wee Erwin’s short-lived big band, Albam joined the Charlie Barnet Orchestra, where he got his first major exposure as a composer/arranger. By 1949, Barnet was leading an ensemble of young musicians playing bebop and ‘progressive’ music, and Albam’s pieces such as “Charlie’s Other Aunt,” “Claude Reigns,” and “Swell and Super” were popular with audiences. By 1950, Albam put down his saxophone and became a composer/arranger full time (except for a 1953 recording with Ella Fitzgerald), writing two arrangements a week for the Charlie Spivak band for almost two years. His compositions appeared in the books of Woody Herman and Count Basie. He also wrote “Samana” for the Stan Kenton Innovations Orchestra.

In December of 1955, the first of Albam’s landmark albums was recorded for RCA Victor. “Jazz Workshop” was part of the “Jazz Workshop” series produced by Jack Lewis. The LP was a mix of originals and standards written for an all-star octet of two trumpets, two trombones, two reeds, bass and drums. The personnel included Al Cohn, Bob Brookmeyer, Milt Hinton, Billy Byers, Urbie Green, Joe Newman and Nick Travis. Albam followed that up with a collaboration with Ernie Wilkins for RCA called “Drum Suite,” recorded in March of 1956. Albam contributed three of the six tracks for an album that featured drummers Gus Johnson, Osie Johnson, Ted Sommer and Don Lamond.

He wrote arrangements for Stan Getz, Jackie Paris and Coleman Hawkins during this period. By 1957, he was signed to the Coral label and recorded several albums under his own name and for others such as Larry Sonn, Hal McKusick and Tommy Shepherd. Many were excellent, but two were outstanding. In September and October of 1957, Manny recorded “The Blues is Everybody’s Business,” a four-part suite; two with big band, and two with orchestra. Ambitious and yet down-home (it is an album of music based on the blues after all), it has become a classic, studied in composition classes in colleges all over the world. He followed this with an album of music from the Broadway musical “West Side Story.” Composer Leonard Bernstein was so impressed with the settings of his songs that he invited Albam to compose something for the New York Philharmonic. He felt that he needed further training in composition, so he began studying with Tibor Serly, who had been an associate of composer Bela Bartok.

During the sixties, Albam continued to work on album projects for RCA-Victor, Impulse (an album with Curtis Fuller of the music from the show “Cabin in the Sky” is particularly impressive) and United Artists, music for Broadway, and advertising jingles. In 1964, he became the musical director of Sonny Lester’s record label Solid State. Liner notes for its early albums boasted that the music was recorded with the most up-to-date equipment in the world, and the legendary producer Phil Ramone was the engineer for these sessions. Albam recorded “Brass of Fire,” an album with an orchestra of all brass instruments, and another album that has become a classic, “The Soul of the City.” By 1964, Albam began to devote time to teaching. He taught at the Eastman School of Music, Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) in New Jersey, and the Manhattan School of Music. In 1988, he helped to establish the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop.

He continued to write for recordings and the concert hall. He arranged for Meredith D’Ambrosio, Judy Niemack, Eileen Farrell, Nancy Marano, Hank Jones (with string quartet), and an album with Joe Lovano featuring the music of Frank Sinatra. Both Bud Shank and Phil Woods recorded his “Concerto for Jazz Alto Saxophone and Orchestra,” and Phil Woods recorded “Nostalgico” with the American Jazz Philharmonic. He wrote music for the WDR big band of Germany and for the Metropole Orchestra of Holland.

Manny passed away on October 2, 2001 at his home at Croton-On-Hudson. He left a huge legacy of great music and many composer/arrangers who were his students.

                                                                                 ---- Jeff Sultanof
                                                                              Editor, Jazz Historian