Home » Search Center » Results: Van Alexander
Results for "Van Alexander"
About Van Alexander
Instrument: Composer / conductor
Related Articles | Albums | Photos | Similar ToResults for pages tagged "Van Alexander"...
Van Alexander
Born:
Van Alexander (born Alexander Van Vliet Feldman) was an American bandleader, arranger and composer. Alexander led bands and arranged from high school, and studied composition in college. He landed a job selling arrangements to Chick Webb in the middle of the 1930s. One of these, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket", became a hit for Webb and Ella Fitzgerald, and subsequently became one of her signature tunes. Alexander later arranged other nursery rhymes for jazz performance, such as "Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone?" and "Got a Pebble in My Shoe". n the late 1930s Alexander formed his own band and played theaters into the 1940s
Interview: Mrs. Shelly Manne
Flip Manne, Shelly Manne's wife, was born in 1921 in Vermont, rode horses and took dance lessons from an early age. In 1939, she moved to New York and eventually took a job dancing at the Roxy Theatre. She soon auditioned at Radio City Music Hall and won a position in the fabled Rockettes, who back ...
Losses: Rumsey, Alexander, Taylor
Howard Rumsey, the 1940s Stan Kenton bassist who went on to become a key figure in southern California jazz, died on February 15. He was 97. Although he continued to play the bass, Rumsey became famous as the entrepreneur who led the band at The Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach south of Los Angeles. The club was ...
Van Alexander (1915-2015)
Van Alexander, a big band arranger and bandleader whose arrangements date back to 1936 and was best known for A-Tisket, a Tasket, a song he co-wrote with Ella Fitzgerald and arranged for Fitzgerald and Chick Webb in 1938, died on July 19 in Los Angeles. He was 100. When I interviewed Van in 2012, he was ...
Interview: Van Alexander (Part 1)
Today is Van Alexander's birthday (Happy Birthday Van!). He's 97 years old. Van is probably best known for arranging Ella Fitzgerald's career-launching hit A-Tisket, A-Tasket, which she recorded with Chick Webb's band in 1938—on this very day, in fact, 74 years ago. Van wrote the words, including her interchange with the band, and Ella tweaked them ...