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Claude Thornhill

{{short description|American pianist, composer and arranger}}

{{about|the musician and bandleader|the college football coach|Claude E. Thornhill}}

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Claude Thornhill

| image = Claude Thornhill (Gottlieb 08531).jpg

| caption = Thornhill, ca. 1947

| birth_date = {{birth date|1908|8|10}}

| birth_place = Terre Haute, Indiana, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|1965|7|1|1908|8|10}}

| death_place = Caldwell, New Jersey, U.S.

| genre = Jazz, cool jazz

| occupation = Musician, bandleader, arranger, composer

| instrument = Piano

| years_active = 1924–1965

| spouse = {{marriage |Ruth Thornhill |1952}}

| associated_acts = Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, Ray Noble, Billie Holiday, Lee Konitz, Gil Evans, Gerry Mulligan

}}

Claude Thornhill (August 10, 1908 – July 1, 1965){{cite book|title=The Guinness Who's Who of Jazz|editor=Colin Larkin|publisher=Guinness Publishing|date=1992|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-580-8|pages=395/6}} was an American pianist, arranger, composer, and bandleader. He composed the jazz and pop standards "Snowfall" and "I Wish I Had You".

Early years

Thornhill was the son of J. Chester Thornhill and his wife, Maude. When he was 11 years old, he played piano professionally. While still a youth, he played with two local combos.{{cite book |last1=Roznowski |first1=Tom |title=An American Hometown: Terre Haute, Indiana, 1927 |date=2009 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-00503-8 |pages=226–227 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LKKHkdXpD58C&q=%22Claude+Thornhill%22&pg=PA227 |access-date=March 9, 2020 |language=en}} As a student at Garfield High School in Terre Haute, he played with several theater bands. Thornhill studied at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music{{cite book |last1=Schiedt |first1=Duncan |title=The Jazz State of Indiana |date=1977 |publisher=Duncan Schiedt |page=230}} and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.{{cite book |last1=McClellan |first1=Lawrence |title=The Later Swing Era, 1942 to 1955 |date=2004 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-313-30157-5 |pages=76–79 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Oit7y0bS4MUC&q=%22Claude+Thornhill%22&pg=PA76 |access-date=March 9, 2020 |language=en}}

Career

As 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 and clarinetist Artie Shaw started their careers at the Golden Pheasant in Cleveland, Ohio, with the Austin Wylie Orchestra. Thornhill and Shaw went to New York together in 1931. 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. In 1935, he played on sessions with Glenn Miller, including "Solo Hop", which was released on Columbia Records. He also played with Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, Ray Noble, and Billie Holiday. He arranged "Loch Lomond" and "Annie Laurie" for Maxine Sullivan.{{cite web |url={{AllMusic|class=artist|id=claude-thornhill-mn0000143405 |tab=biography |pure_url=yes}} |title=Claude Thornhill Biography |first=Scott |last=Yanow |author-link=Scott Yanow |publisher=All Media Network |website=AllMusic |access-date=April 2, 2018}}

During the mid-1930s, Thornhill arranged and played piano for Andre Kostelanetz.

In 1939, he founded the Claude Thornhill Orchestra. Polo was his lead clarinet player. 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.{{cite web |url=https://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/claude-thornhill-godfather-cool/ |title=The Godfather Of Cool |first=David |last=Johnson |website=WFIU |date=August 3, 2009}} The band played without vibrato, so that the timbres of the instruments could be better appreciated. Thornhill encouraged the musicians to develop cool-sounding tones. The band was popular with both musicians and the public. Miles Davis's Birth of the Cool nonet was modeled in part on Thornhill's sound and unconventional instrumentation. The band's most successful records were "Snowfall", "A Sunday Kind of Love", and "Love for Love".

Thornhill was playing at the Paramount Theater in New York for $10,000 a week{{Citation needed |date=March 2020}} when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy as an apprentice seaman on October 26, 1942. As chief musician, he performed shows across the Pacific Theater with Jackie Cooper as his drummer and Dennis Day as his vocalist.

In 1946, he was discharged from the Navy and reunited his ensemble. Polo, Gerry Mulligan, and Barry Galbraith returned with new members, Red Rodney, Lee Konitz, Joe Shulman, and Bill Barber.{{Citation needed |date=March 2020}} Thornhill and his orchestra played for the Judy, Jill and Johnny variety program on radio on the Mutual Broadcasting System in 1946–1947.{{cite book|last1=Terrace|first1=Vincent|title=Radio Programs, 1924-1984: A Catalog of More Than 1800 Shows|date=1999|publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc.|isbn=978-0-7864-4513-4|page=183}}

In 1957, Thornhill became Tony Bennett's musical director. He offered his big band library to Gerry Mulligan when Mulligan formed the Concert Jazz Band, but Mulligan declined the gift, since his instrumentation was different. A large portion of his extensive library of music is currently held by Drury University in Springfield, Missouri.{{Citation needed |date=March 2020}}

Thornhill died of a heart attack in Caldwell, New Jersey, at the age of 56.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1965/07/02/archives/claude-thornhill-is-dead-at-56-pianist-led-band-in-swing-era.html |title=Claude Thornhill Is Dead at 56 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=29 |date=July 2, 1965 |url-access=subscription}} In 1984, he was posthumously inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.

Compositions

File:Claude Thornhill Orchestra (Gottlieb 08551).jpg, Danny Polo, Lee Konitz, Louis Mucci, Barry Galbraith, Bill Barber, and Billy Exiner, ca. 1947.]]

Thornhill's compositions included the standard "Snowfall", "I Wish I Had You", recorded by Billie Holiday and Fats Waller, "Let's Go", "Shore Road", "Portrait of a Guinea Farm", "Lodge Podge", "Rustle of Spring", "It's Time for Us to Part", "It Was a Lover and His Lass", "The Little Red Man", "Memory of an Island", and a big band arrangement of the folk song "Where Has My Little Dog Gone?"

=Cover versions of "Snowfall"=

Thornhill's 1941 piano composition "Snowfall", later had lyrics written by his wife, Ruth Thornhill. It has been recorded in vocal and non-vocal versions by the following artists:

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References

{{Reflist}}

External links

  • [http://www.bigbandlibrary.com/claudethornhill.html Claude Thornhill] biography by Christopher Popa
  • {{Discogs artist|313126-Claude-Thornhill}}
  • {{IMDb name|1033127}}
  • {{Find a Grave|7520632}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Thornhill, Claude}}

Category:1908 births

Category:1965 deaths

Category:Cool jazz pianists

Category:Sweet band musicians

Category:American big band bandleaders

Category:American jazz pianists

Category:American male jazz pianists

Category:American jazz bandleaders

Category:American music arrangers

Category:People from Caldwell, New Jersey

Category:RCA Victor artists

Category:People from Terre Haute, Indiana

Category:Musicians from Indiana

Category:Musicians from Essex County, New Jersey

Category:Musicians from New Rochelle, New York

Category:United States Navy personnel of World War II

Category:20th-century American pianists

Category:Jazz musicians from New York (state)

Category:20th-century American male musicians

Category:United States Navy sailors