Van Alexander
| Van Alexander | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Alexander Van Vliet Feldman |
| Born |
May 2, 1915 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died | July 19, 2015 (aged 100) Los Angeles, California |
| Occupation(s) | Bandleader, composer, arranger |
| Years active | 1930–1985 |
Van Alexander (May 2, 1915 – July 19, 2015) was an American bandleader, arranger, and composer.
Alexander was born Alexander Van Vliet Feldman in Harlem, New York City, New York. His mother was a classical pianist, and she taught him to play the piano. He went on to study music at Columbia University.
Alexander led bands and arranged from high school.
He landed a job selling arrangements to Chick Webb in the middle of the 1930s. One of these, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket", became a hit for Webb and Ella Fitzgerald, and subsequently became one of her signature tunes. Alexander later arranged other nursery rhymes for jazz performance, such as "Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone?" and "Got a Pebble in My Shoe".
In 1938, Alexander formed his own band and played theaters into the 1940s. When Alexander's group disbanded, he and two others from the group joined Larry Clinton's orchestra. George T. Simon, in his book, The Big Bands, quoted Clinton as saying that he had "a package deal from Van Alexander. He had given up his band and joined us, and he brought along Butch Stone and Irv Cottler, whose drumming made all the difference in the world." By June 1942, Alexander had formed another band of his own.
Later in the 1940s, he was hired by Bob Crosby to work in Hollywood, and worked extensively as a composer, arranger and conductor for film scores. Alexander wrote a textbook on film arrangement in 1950 called First Arrangement, and Johnny Mandel studied under him.
Alexander's scores included several Mickey Rooney films, such as The Atomic Kid (1954), The Twinkle in God's Eye (1955), Baby Face Nelson (1957), The Last Mile (1959), The Big Operator (1959) and The Private Lives of Adam and Eve (1960), as well as the scores to 13 Frightened Girls (1963), Strait-Jacket (1964), I Saw What You Did (1965) and Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (1966).
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