Mel Powell
Mel Powell | |
---|---|
Sherman Oaks, California , U.S. | |
Occupation(s) | Composer, music educator, pianist |
Years active | 1939–1998 |
Spouse | |
Children | 2 |
Mel Powell (born Melvin Epstein) (February 12, 1923 – April 24, 1998) was an American
Early life
Mel Powell was born Melvin D. Epstein on February 12, 1923, in
Career
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Martha_Scott_Mel_Powell_3.jpg/220px-Martha_Scott_Mel_Powell_3.jpg)
Powell's style was rooted in the stride style that was the direct precursor to swing piano. One composition from his Goodman years, The Earl, is perhaps his best known from that time. The song—dedicated to Earl "Fatha" Hines, one of Powell's piano heroes—was recorded without a drummer.[3] After nearly two years with Goodman, Powell played briefly with the CBS radio band under director Raymond Scott.[3] During World War II, Powell was drafted into the U.S. Army, but fought his battles from a piano stool, having been assigned to Glenn Miller's Army Air Force Band from 1943 to 1945.
Near the war's end, Powell was stationed in Paris, where he played with Django Reinhardt, and then returned for a brief stint in Goodman's band again after being discharged from the military. In the mid-to-late 1940s, Powell moved to Hollywood and ventured into providing music for movies and cartoons, such as the Tom and Jerry shorts.[1] He played himself in the movie A Song Is Born (1948), appearing along with many other famous jazz players, including Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman. It was during his time in Hollywood that he met and married actress Martha Scott.
Shortly thereafter, Powell developed
Changing styles, careers
At first sticking to
Powell composed for orchestra, chorus, voice, and chamber ensemble throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.[1] In 1969, he returned to California to serve as founding dean of the School of Music of the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia. After serving as Provost of the institute from 1972 to 1976, he was appointed the Roy O. Disney Professor of Music, and taught at the Institute until shortly before his death.[5] Notable students include the composers Ann Millikan and Anthony Brandt. See: List of music students by teacher: N to Q#Mel Powell.
Later years
In 1987, Powell joined other musicians for a jazz festival on the cruise ship
Pulitzer Prize
In 1990, Powell received his highest career achievement, the Pulitzer Prize for Music, for his work Duplicates: A Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra.[7] In a Los Angeles Times interview, Powell expressed complete surprise: "Being out here on the coast, far away from the whole Eastern establishment to which the Pulitzer is connected – that made me a remote prospect. I just didn't expect it."[5] In an interview with The New York Times, Powell related the story of how Duplicates came from his service in World War II and an anecdote he heard in Paris about Claude Debussy's search for perfect music. That, Powell, stated was his goal for Duplicates. The work, commissioned in 1987 for the Los Angeles Philharmonic by music patron Betty Freeman, took Powell more than two years to complete. It was made even more difficult as his muscular dystrophy, previously affecting only his legs, began to afflict his arms and thus his ability to play the piano.[8]
Besides the Pulitzer, Powell's awards and honors include the Creative Arts Medal from
Death
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/cb/Martha_Scott_Mel_Powell_1.jpg/220px-Martha_Scott_Mel_Powell_1.jpg)
Powell died at his home in
Quotes
- On his days in big band/swing music: "It's really so long ago, one ought to be able to invoke a statute of limitations. I played with Benny Goodman for two years, and I've been composing for 40. At the time, swing music, big-band music and Benny Goodman in particular were so boundlessly popular that people who made room for it in their lives have never forgotten it. So I get calls from people who are in a kind of time warp, who ask me about this period of my life as though it were the present. But I've moved on to other things."[8]
- "The musician's business is structure...The musician...is...therefore drawn to a profound science of structure. Looking closely at music itself, he is likely to ask: "What changes? When? By how much?"...he is...able to feel at home where logicians exhibit techniques for "isolating relevant structure."[9]
- "It is true that the music I traffic in, along with Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter and others, has never gained a great popularity. But that was true of the so-called difficult music of earlier centuries, too. And I must say that I have noticed, as we have held our ground, that there has been a softening of response. There are now those who are beginning to find expressive beauty in a music that was at first rejected entirely."[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Mel Powell, Atonal Composer who won Pulitzer, dies at 75". The New York Times. 27 April 1998. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
- ^ Balliett, Whitney (2005). American Musicians II: Seventy-One Portraits in Jazz, pp. 174–182. University Press of Mississippi.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Mel Powell-A Multifaceted Musical Personality". Jazzhouse.org. 1998. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
- ^ Yanow, Scott (2000). Swing, p. 211. San Francisco: Miller Freeman Books.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Mel Powell; Pulitzer Prize winning composer". Los Angeles Times. 25 April 1998. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
- ^ "Bennie at Basin Street." Cash Box, 7 August 1954, 21.
- ^ 1990 Pulitzer Prizes, Pulitzer.org
- ^ a b "Mel Powell's Musical Journey to a Pulitzer Prize". The New York Times. 24 April 1990. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
- ^ Mel Powell, "A Note on Rigor", Perspectives of New Music, Spring 1963, (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1963), p. 121–122.
External links
- Art of the States: Mel Powell Immobiles (1967)
- GreenManReview.com Review of Powell's The Best Things In Life (Vanguard Records, 1999) by Danny Cohen
- The Mel Powell Papers at Irving S. Gilmore Music Library, Yale University
- Interview with Mel Powell, June 29, 1987