Buddy Bregman | |
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Bregman in 1959
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Background information | |
Birth name | Louis Isidore Bregman |
Born |
Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
July 9, 1930
Died | January 8, 2017 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
(aged 86)
Genres | Pop, jazz |
Occupation(s) | Composer, arranger, producer, conductor |
Labels | Verve |
Associated acts | Ella Fitzgerald, Eddie Fisher |
Louis Isidore "Buddy" Bregman (July 9, 1930 – January 8, 2017) was an American arranger, producer, and composer. He worked with many of the greatest musical artists of 20th Century popular music, including: Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Louis Armstrong, Sammy Davis Jr., Peggy Lee, Bobby Darin, Anita O'Day, Frank Sinatra, Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, Jerry Lewis, Paul Anka, Buddy Rich, Eddie Fisher, Annie Ross, and Carmen McRae. He became Ethel Merman's personal arranger.
A nephew of British-born American songwriter Jule Styne, Bregman was born in Chicago. He studied at UCLA and during his sophomore year arranged and conducted Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller's "Bazoom (I Need Your Lovin')" for the Cheers, which subsequently became his first hit record. In 1955 he was appointed orchestra leader for the Gary Crosby Show on CBS radio.
Aged 25, Bregman became head of A&R at Norman Granz's newly established Verve Records, following a chance meeting with Granz at the home of Rosemary Clooney and José Ferrer. He arranged and conducted their first single ("I'm With You" / "The Rock and Roll Waltz") and their first album, Anita, both featuring vocals by Anita O'Day. In 1956 Bregman arranged and conducted three Verve Records albums which subsequently all went platinum. Two of the albums in Ella Fitzgerald's Songbooks project were arranged by Bregman. He also arranged several of Fitzgerald's early Verve Records singles.