Neal Hefti

trumpet - arranger,composer

Surely one of the best known and all- round composers of jazz and popular film scores has to be trumpet player, Neal Hefti. He has the unique quality of being able to produce jumping, rhythmic numbers, tailor-made for the swinging Charlie Barnet, Woody Herman and Count Basie orchestras, then rush to the piano and write catchy film and TV scores such as Here's to my Lover from the Jack Lemmon film How to Murder your Wife, and the equally appealing TV theme, The Odd Couple.

Neal Hefti was born on October 29th, 1922 on a chilly, late autumn day, in the mid- Western State of Hastings, Nebraska. He commenced his musical education at the age of eleven on trumpet, and by the time he had reached fifteen had completed his first arrangement for the local Nat Towles band.

Moving eastwards to New Jersey in 1941, Neal was hired as trumpeter and arranger to the rather commercial-sounding Bob Astor orchestra. This engagement Hefti didn't particularly relish but it enabled him to gain experience. Shortly after departing from Astor, Hefti left for Cuba with the Les Lieber band, but on returning to the States joined Alvino Rey's band in 1942. This, too, was of short duration, after which Hefti played with the Bobby Byrne band for a few months.

Neal freelanced for a while writing arrangements for the Earl Hines orchestra. A bigger break came for Hefti when he was assigned to the Charlie Barnet band which afforded him the opportunity to display his talents to the utmost, particularly Neal's exciting arrangement of Redskin Rhumba, a hit for the Barnet band.

The following year, 1943, Hefti joined the more mellow sounding Charlie Spivak band in Los Angeles but was soon to receive a more acceptable offer financially from Horace Heidt, a rather corny Mickey Mouse band, only to realize he had made the wrong decision in this respect, and so it was time to move on.

Neal had learned that there were exciting musical events occurring in New York, such as Minton's in Harlem; therefore, Hefti was prompt to grasp the new music called be-bop and he was inflicting all the flourishes, phrasing, and execution into his own playing and arrangements. In early 1944 Neal was in conversation with Woody Herman's bass player, Chubby Jackson, who recommended him to Herman where he was to become a member of the First Herd trumpet section.

Hefti contributed many fine arrangements and compositions to the Herman library, such as Wildroot, Apple Honey, Goosey Gander, The Good Earth, and many more. He fell in love with Herman's vocalist, Frances Wayne, who, like Hefti, had previously appeared with the Charlie Barnet orchestra. The couple married during October 1945 and remained happily married until Frances' death during the 1980s.

During 1946 it was time for a change of scene. He became arranger for the bop-orientated band of tenor saxophonist, Georgie Auld, but this folded after a while due to economic reasons; however, they accomplished a final session on June 14th which featured Sarah Vaughan vocalising on You're Blase, and an attractive bop opus entitled MO-MO, recorded on Musicraft. Charlie Ventura, a tenor saxophonist, was also realizing the potentialities of bop and was delighted to hire this talented trumpet player, composer, arranger.

Hefti's arrangement of How High The Moon and Misirlou were highly acclaimed. The I7-pieced Ventura band appeared at all the popular jazz venues along 52nd Street, but unfortunately the clubs were not large enough, at the most only being able to accommodate about seventy-five people, and not financially successful. Neal Hefti didn't desist during the difficult days when bop was slowly becoming acceptable to the general jazz public . For a few months he was fronting his own small be-bop combo and recorded on the Keynote label, I Woke Up Dizzy (dedicated to Gillespie) and Sloppy Joe's, also recorded by the Ted Heath band on Decca a few years later.

Neal's talents were certainly lucrative as he was soon contributing to the library of Benny Carter with an updated version of Some of These Days, which also featured Hefti as trumpet soloist. Ex Herman trombonist, Bill Harris, requested Neal to score a few arrangements for his solo record debut, which included Everything Happens To Me and Frustration. Two other former Hermanites invited Hefti to write for them also, namely bass player Chubby Jackson, recorded on the Queen label, and Flip Phillips a tenor saxophonist, on the Signature label. Stan Kenton, too, became interested in Neal's abilities by asking him to arrange How High The Moon for vocalist June Christy on the Capitol label.

There was a brief return to Charlie Barnet in 1947-48. Trumpeter Harry James was re-forming his big band during 1948-49 and wanted a more contemporary sound so. Naturally, Hefti was just the man to fill the bill and his arrangements were very similar to the type of scores that he was later to write for the Count Basie band. In actual fact, Hefti first arranged for the Count Basie septet 1950-51, prior to arranging for the full 16 piece Basie band. The Count cut down to the smaller band (which included trumpeter Clark Terry, clarinettist Buddy de Franco and tenor saxophonist Wardell Gray) due to the fact that it was not economical to tour with a large personnel. However, this was of short duration and a couple or so years later the Basie band returned to its full size.

Neal contributed more than 40 compositions and arrangements to the Basie repertoire. The most popular would include Splanky, Cute, Lil Darlin', Little Pony, Duet and The Kid From Red Bank. Neal interrupted his ten year association with Basie (1950-60) to embark on forming his own band, mainly for recording purposes, in 1952. Some of the material was somewhat disappointing to the jazz fanatic as several of the compositions contained hardly any jazz contents. Among the items recorded on the Coral label were Band with Young Ideal, Hot 'n' Hearty and Donkey Serenade.

Hefti soon abandoned the idea of fronting his own band and returned to writing for the Basie orchestra, which pleased the fans tremendously. During the 1960's Hefti received a call from Hollywood inviting him to write scores for TV and movies. One of the strangest requests by a film company was for Hefti to add a musical score to an ancient 1923 silent film featuring comedy actor Harold Lloyd.

Neal was employed to write music for every conceivable plot, plausible or not. The film music he has written is often very diversified; sometimes full of depth and colour, then, when called for, using a lighthearted approach, more suitable for a comedy situation. Like most former jazz arrangers, Neal likes to include as much jazz influence as the film moguls will permit.

Here is a selection of films where Neal Hefti has demonstrated his own exceptional ability: The Last of the Secret Agents (song by Hefti), You Are Harlow, featuring Victor Feldman, vibes (amongst others), Barefoot in the Park, Duel of Diablo, Boeing, Boeing, The Odd Couple, Sex and the Single Girl, Batman (theme) Green Hornet, New Face in Hell, The Strong Man, Oh Dad, Poor Dad. Conspiracy Hometown (documentary), A New Leaf, Synanon, (documentary) solo pianist, Arnold Ross, How to Murder Your Wife and Lord Love A Duck.

The latest news (in 1992) concerning Neal Hefti is that he is contemplating forming his own band and resuming trumpet playing. He was one of the guest conductors at the Stan Kenton 50th Anniversary celebration held at Balboa Beach California during late May, early June, last year.