Al Lerner (composer)
| Al Lerner | |
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Al Lerner on the cover of his 2007 book Vamp 'Til Ready. He is playing piano, with bandleader Harry James looking on.
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| Born |
April 7, 1919 Cleveland, Ohio |
| Died | January 19, 2014 (aged 94) |
| Known for | Big band pianist, musical director, and composer |
Al Lerner (born 1919 in Cleveland, Ohio - January 19, 2014) was an American pianist, composer, arranger, and conductor from the big band era. He was a member of the Harry James band for many years, playing piano. He wrote music for several artists, including Allan Sherman and Liza Minnelli. He also wrote the music for "So Until I See You", the closing theme for The Tonight Show with Jack Paar in the early 1960s, and was the pianist for A Tribute to Eddie Duchin, which was a soundtrack for the 1956 biographical film pic The Eddy Duchin Story.
Lerner was born on April 7, 1919 in Cleveland, the youngest of three children. Their father Abraham had died on November 11, 1918 before Al's birth, a victim of the 1918 flu pandemic. Lerner's mother Jennie Takiff then married a sheet metal worker named Abe Lerner, who became Al's adopted father. During the American Prohibition banning the sale of alcohol, Abe Lerner used his metalworking abilities on the side to make stills for Cleveland gangsters and bootleggers, and used his seven-year-old son Al as a courier for payments. It was a rough neighborhood with regular mob wars between rival gangsters, multiple killings on Lerner's street, and payoffs to the local police. Abe Lerner was eventually arrested and the still business was shut down, after which the family went broke.
As a child, Lerner helped to bring in money by climbing onto tables in local saloons and singing songs such as "All Alone by the Telephone", and then collecting coins thrown by the patrons. He then took piano lessons at a convent next to St. Anne's Hospital, but quit because he thought it was too difficult. When he saw a performance by Bill Robinson at The Palace, he decided he wanted to learn tap dancing, so studied with Roy Lewis, and soon was winning amateur contests. He was also learning how to play drums from his brother Harold, and began playing for $1.50/night at a local brothel. As he tired of carrying the drums back and forth though, he decided to switch back to piano as it was easier, and resumed his lessons. His skills continued to improve, and by the age of 17 he had worked his way up to earning $15/week, playing at clubs such as Shadowland, and developing an affinity for jazz by listening to records by Earl Hines. He attended John Adams High School and Glenville High School.
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