Billy May

Billy May

Real name: William E. May

Born: Nov 10, 1916 in Pittsburgh, PA

Genres: Jazz

Styles: Traditional Pop, Swing, Instrumental Pop, Orchestral Pop

Instruments: Composer, Arranger, Trumpet

William E. May, better known as Billy May (10 November 1916 - 22 January 2004) was a United States composer, arranger and musician.
May was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He played trumpet professionally in big bands such as those of Charlie Barnet starting in 1939, but became best known as a talented arranger. His arrangement of the Ray Noble composition Cherokee became a major hit of the swing music era.
May worked as an arranger for the bands of Glenn Miller and Les Brown before being hired as staff arranger first for the National Broadcasting Company radio network, then for Capitol Records. At Capitol his studio big band accompanied such artists as Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby, producing many hit records.
Billy May died of heart failure at the age of 87 in his home in San Juan Capistrano, California.

(From Wikipedia , the free encyclopedia.)

Discography

1951 A Band Is Born {Pausa}
1952 Big Band Bash {Capitol}
1955 Sorta Dixie {Creative World}
1955 Sorta May (Sorta Dixie) {Capitol}
1957 Great Jimmie Lunceford {Capitol}
1957 Big Fat Brass
1960 Girls and Boys on Broadway
1962 Sweetest Swingin' Sounds of 'No Strings'
1963 Bill's Bag {Capitol}
1966 Billy May Today! {Capitol}
1974 I Believe in You {Bainbridge}
1999 Johnny Cool {Rykodisc}
2002 Let's Go to Town With Billy May & His... {Jasmine}

On 08.01.2005 wrote jim noonan

best sinatra website!

Am 21.10.2004 schrieb Jan Schütze

super homepage ich war gerade in vegas und habe mir die ratpack double show angetan dieser frank hatte eine sehr ähnliche stimme wie o.b.e und seit dem muss ich jeden tag frank s.hören habe mir erst mal im ebay en paar dvds bestellt danke für die vielen infos
gruss jan

On 16.12.2004 wrote akerr

just what ive been looking for well laid out and most informative,the best site for the greatest of them all

20.10.2004 vonContessa Isabel von Fechtmann

My dear Andreas,
It is simply magnificent, I am a writer/producer/musician. I was a wunderkind on the piano. Now, I arrange and play jazz.. I knew The Bossman. We are five generations of Sinatra lovers. My grandmother, my mother, myself, my son and daughter, and now my three year old grandson Niccolo Sinatra de Rodino. Of course, my husband Stefan also \\\'\\\'digs\\\'\\\' him. I was thrilled to find A NIGHTINGALE SANG IN BERKELEY SQUARE, as it inspired me to write a 7 book series and a computer game. Also. I used to live in London, and had a flat in Berkeley Square. In addition, I was close to the musical director of that album, which I believe was called by the same name. as the song.. He told me an impressive story of Frank as a musician. On that particular song, A NIGHTINGALE SAND IN BERKELEY SQUARE, one of the sound engineers said\\\'\\\' Frank. listen to this\\\'\\\'. He did. The trombone player seemed to have a few seconds more than what the arranger had planned.\\\'\\\'That\\\'s gassin great stuff, man. Leave it in.\\\'\\\' THAT, is a musician, according to me..I will send you my top ten Sinatra.soon.. I see he also sang with another great love of my life-Stan Kenton. Auf Wiedersehn,Isabel von Fechtmann