Harry Bluestone

Harry Bluestone
Harry Bluestone playing his violin
Background information
Born	(1907-09-30)September 30, 1907 England
Origin	England
Died	December 22, 1992(1992-12-22) (aged 85) Studio City, California
Occupation(s)	Composer, Conductor, Music Producer
Instruments	Violin
Years active	1913–1987

Harry Bluestone (September 30, 1907 – December 22, 1992) was a British violinist who composed music for TV and Movie. He was prolific and worked mainly on composing with Emil Cadkin. Earlier on, he was a violinist and freelanced on radio in the 1930s with Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman and the Dorsey Brothers. Some of his compositions were also featured on APM Music. He retired in 1987 and died of tuberculosis in Studio City, California on December 23, 1992.

Harry was born Harold B. Blostein in England on September 30, 1907 and apparently went to New York as a boy. He took up the violin at a young age, and the liner notes on his Artistry in Jazz album reveal “he performed the Bruch G-Minor Violin Concerto to critical acclaim when only 7 years old.” As a teenager, he travelled to Paris with a small jazz group to back up expatriate singer Josephine Baker. Harry graduated from the Institute of Musical Art (later renamed Juilliard School), and freelanced on numerous radio programmes in the 1930s with the Dorsey Brothers, Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw. He played with Bix Beiderbecke, Bunny Berigan and Red Nichols (who had in his employ a future cartoon sound genius named Treg Brown).

Harry moved to Hollywood in 1935 with the Lennie Hayton Orchestra, which had been known as the Ipana Troubadors on Fred Allen’s Show in New York, when it became the first orchestra on Your Hit Parade (eventually replaced in 1939 by the Raymond Scott). Bluestone had his own 15-minute radio show, recorded for Brunswick Records and was hired by Paramount Studios as its concertmaster. He enlisted in the Air Force in 1942, rose to the rank of Master Sergeant and organised both the Army Air Force Orchestra and the Army Air Force Training Command Orchestra that replaced Glenn Miller, who went overseas to his eventual death.