As chief musician, he performed shows across the Pacific Theater with Jackie Cooper as his drummer and Dennis Day as his vocalist. Navy as an apprentice seaman on October 26, 1942. Thornhill was playing at the Paramount Theater in New York for $10,000 a week when he enlisted in the U.S. The band's most successful records were 'Snowfall', ' A Sunday Kind of Love', and 'Love for Love'. Miles Davis's Birth of the Cool nonet was modeled in part on Thornhill's sound and unconventional instrumentation. The band was popular with both musicians and the public. Thornhill encouraged the musicians to develop cool-sounding tones. The band played without vibrato, so that the timbres of the instruments could be better appreciated.

Although the Thornhill band was a sophisticated dance band, it became known for its superior jazz musicians and for Thornhill's and Gil Evans's arrangements. In 1939, he founded the Claude Thornhill Orchestra. ĭuring the mid-1930s, Thornhill arranged and played piano for Andre Kostelanetz. He arranged ' Loch Lomond' and ' Annie Laurie' for Maxine Sullivan. He also played with Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, Ray Noble, and Billie Holiday. In 1935, he played on sessions with Glenn Miller, including ' Solo Hop', which was released on Columbia Records. Thornhill went to the West Coast in the late 1930s with the Bob Hope Radio Show and arranged for Judy Garland in Babes in Arms. Thornhill and Shaw went to New York together in 1931. He and clarinetist Artie Shaw started their careers at the Golden Pheasant in Cleveland, Ohio, with the Austin Wylie Orchestra. Career Īs a youth, he was recognized as an extraordinary talent and formed a traveling duo with Danny Polo, a musical prodigy on the clarinet and trumpet from nearby Clinton, Indiana. He also studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Thornhill entered the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music at the age of 16. As a student at Garfield High School in Terre Haute, he played with several theater bands. While still a youth, he played with two local combos.

When he was 11 years old, he played piano professionally. He composed the jazz and pop standards 'Snowfall' and 'I Wish I Had You'. Claude Thornhill (Aug– July 1, 1965) was an American pianist, arranger, composer, and bandleader.

Musical arranger jobs