Robert Ginzler
Robert "Red" Ginzler (20 July 1910,
Despite his relatively short career, Ginzler became an important musical mentor for Robert Farnon, John Kander and Jonathan Tunick. Contemporary reviewers often singled out his racy arrangements as being clever and first-class.[1] Ginzler's biographer quotes him as having said, "The more music you know, the more music you love."[2]
Big band days
Ginzler was a self-taught trombonist who left his separated mother as a teenager in Detroit in 1926. He joined the Jean Goldkette band and roomed with Bix Beiderbecke; both graduated to the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. Ginzler made his first recordings in December, 1927, with a Goldkette unit including Hoagy Carmichael. While playing at the famed Casa Loma hotel he met his wife and by 1930 had joined the Toronto Symphony Orchestra as first trombone.
In the early 1930s he worked with Percy Faith and the CBC Radio Orchestra where he met Don Walker and found success arranging for the Luigi Romanelli band. During this period Robert Farnon whom he knew from the brass section became his first protégé. "Red", as he was known, went back to the U.S. when the Canadian government declared that, in order to work at a radio station, a person had to be a British subject; Ginzler, who frequently had jobs at the CBC, was unwilling to give up his U.S. citizenship and, by the end of 1940, the family had settled in New York City.
Broadway partnerships
In New York he picked up some gigs with
Thereafter until the 1950s Ginzler split his time between pit work and ghosting arrangements mainly for Walker and other composers (e.g. Irving Berlin’s Miss Liberty). Ginzler was a fast worker sometimes orchestrating as much as two-fifths of popular scores such as The Music Man and Wonderful Town. He specialized in jazzy dance numbers for the up-and-coming Bob Fosse, notably "Steam Heat" and "Whatever Lola Wants," both penned by the composing team of Adler and Ross. Occasionally Ginzler might receive assistant credits at the back of the Playbills for these shows.
In 1948 Ginzler was invited by
When Ramin moved to the record label
Blaze of activity
On Ramin's recommendation to composer
In the final year of his life, Ginzler was busy on some well-received soundtrack recordings for TV specials starring Fred Astaire and Dave Rose and his orchestra.[4] He also gained notice for arranging flavorful Italian-themed dances for a wild troupe led by Maria Karnilova in "Ah! Camminare."[5]
The young John Kander (future composer of Cabaret among many others) was frequently used as a dance music arranger on these shows (e.g. Irma La Douce). The orchestrator Jonathan Tunick also became another protégé at this time and has paid credit to Ginzler's influence on the dominant style of the subsequent Prince-Sondheim productions.
Gypsy legacy
The overture from
Ginzler's felicitous handling of
Resources
- Suskin, Steven The Sound of Broadway Music: a book of orchestrators and orchestrations, New York, Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 41–47.
- American Record Guide, vol. 54, 1991, p. 153.
- Gottfried, Martin, Broadway Musicals, 1984.
- The Internet Broadway Data Base: The Official Source for Broadway Information
References
- ^ See, e.g. Saturday Review (of How to Succeed), vol. 44, 1961, p. 58.
- ^ Suskin, Steven, The Sound of Broadway Music, New York, 2009, p. 47.
- ^ American Record Guide, vol. 26, 1959, p. 944.
- ^ High Fidelity, vol. 12, 1962, p. 78
- ^ Stereo Review, vol. 9, 1962, p. 124.
- ^ Gottfried, Martin, Broadway Musicals, 1984, p. 277.
- ^ Kantor, Michael and Laurence Maslon, Broadway: The American Musical, Bulfinch Press, New York, p. 286.
- ^ McLamore, Alyson, Musical Theater: an appreciation, 2004, p. 183.
- ^ Guernsey, Otis L. Broadway Song and Story: Playwrights, lyricists and composers discuss their hits, 1985, p. 71.
- ^ Suskin, p. 47.