In Memorium

In the last few weeks we’ve lost Jack Feierman, Jimmie Haskell, and most recently Ray Colcord. They were all consummate professionals, great talents and wonderful people as well.

JACK FEIERMAN (1924-2016)

Jack was a premier conductor, composer, arranger and trumpeter. A member of the Steve Spiegl Big Band since the early 70’s, Jack Feierman was one of the premier conductors in the country, having been Musical Conductor for Johnny Mathis, Sergio Mendez, Jose Feliciano, The Osmonds, The Lennon Sisters, Frank Sinatra, Natalie Cole, and for 22 years, he was Musical Director for Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme.

Jack has also played trumpet for numerous TV shows, recordings and movies, besides playing with such name bands as Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Count Basie, Billy May, and more. In later years he became famous for his teaching as a conductor.

AS A TEACHER

 AS A PLAYER

JIMMIE HASKELL (1936- 2016)

Jimmie was a multi grammy winner, composer,arranger, conductor and music producer. He was the composer of 31 feature films, 32 TV movies, 445 TV episodes Jimmy’s music was also a featured segment of these theatrical feature films: the Matrix; Three Kings; Grace of My Heart; Pulp Fiction, Big, Mr. Holland’s Opus; Hotshots; Married To The Mob; When Harry Met Sally; Almost Famous; The Color Purple; Fools Rush In; Mulholland Falls; Love Potion #9; Ferris Bueller’s Day Off; Ode To Billy Joe and Weapons of Mass Distraction (T.V. Cable) He also worked with Barbra Streisand; Steely Dan; The Bee Gees; Sheryl Crow; KD Lang “Drag”; Puff Daddy’s Bad Boy Records; Celine Dion among countless others, and works for the Boston Pops and the Tonight Show band.  You can check out more credits at jimmiehaskell.com JIMMIE HASKELL (born Sheridan Pearlman, 1936, Brooklyn, New York, United States, died February 4, 2016, Laguna Niguel, California, United States)was a prolific American composer and arranger for a variety of popular singers and motion pictures.

Haskell entered the musical business through being hired to do arrangements with Imperial Records. He became the arranger of choice for Ricky Nelson and arranged such hits as “There’s Nothing I Can Say” (1964). In the late 1960s and early 1970s Haskell was the arranger of choice for The Grass Roots.[2] He also provided horn and string arrangements for Blondie’s 1980 album Autoamerican. He entered the motion picture soundtrack industry in 1960 as an uncredited orchestrator for Dimitri Tiomkin’s The Alamo and composed his first score the following year Love in a Goldfish Bowl. His composition The Silly Song became the theme song of American television’s The Hollywood Squares.

In addition to composing and arranging, Haskell would often act as conductor and selected the musicians used.

BOOM – Record

OUTRAGE – from the film OUTRAGE

RAY COLCORD (1949-2016)

Ray Colcord, a former president of the Society of Composers & Lyricists and prolific television composer behind the scores for such shows as 227, The Facts Of Life, and more died February 5 following a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 66 Born in New York City in 1949, Colcord attended Rice University and got his start in music as a touring musician in Texas. He also worked as an A&R executive for Columbia Records, and was responsible for getting the rock band Aerosmith signed to the lable. He would later serve as a producer on their second album. He became music director for The Groundlings in 1976, composed all of the comedy troupe’s music during his tenure, and won a Drama-Logue Award in 1985. That same year he began scoring for broadcast network television shows, though his first foray into TV was in 1982, for A&E’s An Evening at the Improv.

Among the other television series, Ray worked on were Family Affair, Big Brother, Dinosaurs, and episode of The Simpsons, My Two Dads, and Silver Spoons. He also wrote music for several films, including “I Like ‘Em Big And Stupid” for the Earth Girls Are Easy soundtrack and “Bouzouki Trella” for Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, as well as several tv movies and specials.

FROM DINOSAURS

AS A PLAYER