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Johnny Mandel (November 23, 1925) ^[1] is a Grammy Award-winning American composer and arranger of popular songs, film music and jazz.

Among the musicians he has worked with are Count Basie (for whom he arranged in the 1950s), Frank Sinatra (for whom he arranged Ring-a-Ding-Ding! (1960), Peggy Lee, Anita O'Day, Barbra Streisand, and Shirley Horn.

Biography

Born John Alfred Mandel, New York, N.Y., to Alfred, a garment manufacturer, and Hannah, an opera singer, who discovered when he was aged 5 that he had perfect pitch. ^[2] Piano lessons ensued but Johnny switched to the trumpet and later the trombone. ^[2]

He studied at the Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard School. In 1943 he played the trumpet with Joe Venuti, in 1944 with Billy Rogers and trombone in the orchestra of Boyd Raeburn, Jimmy Dorsey, Buddy Rich, Georgie Auld and Chubby Jackson. In 1949 he accompanied the singer June Christy in the orchestra of Bob Cooper. From 1951 till 1953 he played and arranged music in the Band of Elliott Lawrence, and in 1953 with Count Basie. Later he resided in Los Angeles, where he played the bass trumpet for Zoot Sims.

A 1944 Band graduate of New York Military Academy, in Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY, he wrote jazz compositions like "Not Really the Blues" for Woody Herman in 1949, "Hershey Bar" (1950) and "Pot Luck" (1953) for Stan Getz, "Straight Life" (1953) and "Low Life" (1956) for Count Basie as well as "Tommyhawk" (1954) for Chet Baker.

Mandel's most famous compositions include "Suicide Is Painless" (theme from the movie and TV series M*A*S*H), "Close Enough for Love", "Emily" and "A Time for Love" (nominated for an Academy Award). He has written a great many film scores, perhaps most notably The Sandpiper. The love theme for that film, "The Shadow of Your Smile", which he co-wrote with Paul Francis Webster, won the 1965 Academy Award for Best Song and the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1966.

He performed an interpretation of Erik Satie's "Gnossiennes #4 and #5" on the piano for the 1979 film Being There.

He won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s) in 1981 for Quincy Jones's album Velas, and again in 1991 for Natalie Cole and Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable", and one year later once more for Shirley Horn's album Here's to Life.

In 2004 Mandel arranged Tony Bennett's album The Art of Romance. Bennett and Mandel had collaborated before on Bennett's The Movie Song Album (1966), for which Mandel arranged and conducted his songs "Emily" and "The Shadow of Your Smile", and was also the album's musical director.

Mandel married Martha Blaner in 1970 and has a daughter, Marrisa, born in 1976. ^[1]

Selected arrangements

• 1960 Ring-a-Ding-Ding! - Frank Sinatra
• 1966 "Emily", "The Shadow of Your Smile" from The Movie Song Album - Tony Bennett
• 1981 "Velas" from The Dude - Quincy Jones
• 1991 Here's to Life - Shirley Horn
• 1999 When I Look in Your Eyes - Diana Krall
• 2004 The Art of Romance - Tony Bennett
• 2006 Duets: An American Classic - Tony Bennett
• 2009 Love Is the Answer - Barbra Streisand

Selected Discography

• 1958 I Want to Live
• 1965 The Sandpiper
• 1966 The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming
• 1970 MASH
• 1973 The Last Detail
• 1975 (Disney) Escape to Witch Mountain
• 1976 (Disney) Freaky Friday
• 1980 Too Close For Comfort (TV Opening)

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Contemporary Musicians, Volume 28. Gale Group, 2000. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.
2. ^ ^{a b} ASCAP [1]

External links

• Johnny Mandel at Allmusic
• Johnny Mandel at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview with Marc Myers at JazzWax
• Alumni of Distinction at New York Military Academy archives page