Dale Oehler
Encyclopedia
Dale Dixon Oehler is primarily known as an arranger. His style contributed to the success of much of the music he was involved with over his career. Leonard Feather
once described Oehler, in his Los Angeles Times
Jazz column, as "an adaptable writer".
Oehler was able to fuse various elements to enhance several genre of music he worked on, including jazz, pop, country, R&B or easy listening. His credits include artists such as Marvin Gaye
, Freddie Hubbard
, Joni Mitchell
and Andre Kostelanetz
.
, Jimmy Dorsey
, Barrett Deems
and Sidney Bechet
. Some of his father's other associates were Jimmy Raney
and Al Haig
. (One of Dale’s early memories was sitting on a barstool singing Dizzy Gillespie
’s "Salt Peanuts
" for them.)
In his early childhood, Dale received formal piano training in the Classics. His father encouraged the awareness of classical music
during Sunday sessions listening to radio broadcast concerts featuring the New York Philharmonic Orchestra as well as recordings by Vladimir Horowitz
and Walter Gieseking
.
While in his teens, Oehler started playing jazz gigs in the Springfield
, Illinois
area after he discovered his love of Bud Powell
, Horace Silver
, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker
. He later played at clubs in the Chicago
area while attending Northwestern University
in Evanston, Illinois
. It was then that he became aware of Gil Evans
' work with Miles Davis
which became a lifelong influence.
After graduation he went to Cedar Rapids, Iowa
to play with J.R. Monterose at the Tender Trap. Other notables that came through the club were Al Jarreau
, Dave Sanborn, Freddie Waits
and Cecil McBee
. He segued from playing in Cedar Rapids to attending the University of Iowa
at Iowa City where he pursued his master's degree
in Composition and was able to establish the first Jazz Program at that university. While going to school, he represented the University of Iowa at the University of Notre Dame
Jazz Festival in 1965 where he received Best Arranger and Best Pianist awards, as judged by Quincy Jones
and Clark Terry
.
Oehler also played on, what has now become, a collector’s item, J.R. Monterose (Studio 4 Records, 1964). While at the University of Iowa, he arranged his first professional record for Bugsy Maugh (Dot Records
, 1968), which received a Grammy Award
nomination the following year.
, California
area to pursue a career in music. In the early 1970s, Oehler again met up with J.J. Johnson
, whom had met in the early 1960s when Johnson was with the Miles Davis band. Johnson was responsible for introducing Dale to Marvin Gaye
, with whom he subsequently arranged "Trouble Man
" (1972), which was the main title for the movie of the same name. Also during this period, he reconnected with Tom McIntosh
, whom he had first met in 1962 while Tom was with the Art Farmer
and Benny Golson
Jazztet. Tom was instrumental in providing the opportunity to write various film cues, which included "Shaft’s Big Score." It was on that film that Dale met Freddie Hubbard, following which Freddie asked Dale to arrange his first Columbia
record, entitled "High Energy" (1974). He also worked on "You Light Up My Life," arranging the title tune for Andre Kostelanetz.
The next major period in Oehler's career began at Blue Note Records
. Beginning in 1975, he worked with Bobby Hutcherson
, Carmen McRae
and Horace Silver. His Warner Bros. Records
work included Al Jarreau, Randy Crawford
and Jennifer Holliday
. He also worked on Joni Mitchell
's "Hissing of the Summer Lawns" (Elektra/Asylum).
In 1978, Oehler produced and arranged the Freddie Hubbard album, Super Blue
, which featured Joe Henderson
, Hubert Laws
, Ron Carter
, Jack DeJohnette
, Kenny Barron
and George Benson
. This album was designed to provide a return to Freddie’s jazz roots while still being commercially viable.
During the 1990s, Oehler's credits included work on albums for Dolly Parton
, Kirk Whalum
, Joe Sample
, Diane Schuur
and Mark Whitfield
(featuring Diana Krall
).
Dale currently resides in Southern California
and plays golf as often as the weather allows.
Leonard Feather
Leonard Geoffrey Feather was a British-born jazz pianist, composer, and producer who was best known for his music journalism and other writing.-Biography:...
once described Oehler, in his Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
Jazz column, as "an adaptable writer".
Oehler was able to fuse various elements to enhance several genre of music he worked on, including jazz, pop, country, R&B or easy listening. His credits include artists such as Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....
, Freddie Hubbard
Freddie Hubbard
Frederick Dewayne "Freddie" Hubbard was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known primarily for playing in the bebop, hard bop and post bop styles from the early 1960s and on...
, Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
and Andre Kostelanetz
Andre Kostelanetz
André Kostelanetz was a popular orchestral music conductor and arranger, one of the pioneers of easy listening music.-Biography:...
.
Early career
His early childhood was influenced by his father, Ray Dixon Oehler, and his mother, Ann, whose love of music was inspiring. Ray, who played under the professional name of Ray Dixon, played piano with Ray AnthonyRay Anthony
Ray Anthony is an American bandleader, trumpeter, songwriter and actor.- Biography :...
, Jimmy Dorsey
Jimmy Dorsey
James "Jimmy" Dorsey was a prominent American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, trumpeter, composer, and big band leader. He was known as "JD"...
, Barrett Deems
Barrett Deems
Barrett Deems was an American swing music jazz drummer born in Springfield, Illinois, probably best known for his work with jazz musicians Jimmy Dorsey, Louis Armstrong , Red Norvo, and Muggsy Spanier.Deems died of pneumonia in Chicago, in September 1998, at the age...
and Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer.He was one of the first important soloists in jazz , and was perhaps the first notable jazz saxophonist...
. Some of his father's other associates were Jimmy Raney
Jimmy Raney
Jimmy Raney was an American jazz guitarist born in Louisville, Kentucky most notable for his work from 1951–1952 and 1962–1963 with Stan Getz and for his work from 1953–1954 with the Red Norvo trio, replacing Tal Farlow. In 1954 and 1955 he won the Down Beat critics poll for guitar...
and Al Haig
Al Haig
Alan Warren Haig was an American jazz pianist, best known as one of the pioneers of bebop.Haig was born in Newark, New Jersey...
. (One of Dale’s early memories was sitting on a barstool singing Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
’s "Salt Peanuts
Salt Peanuts
"Salt Peanuts" is a bebop tune reportedly composed by Dizzy Gillespie in 1942, credited "with the collaboration of" bebop drummer Kenny Clarke...
" for them.)
In his early childhood, Dale received formal piano training in the Classics. His father encouraged the awareness of classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
during Sunday sessions listening to radio broadcast concerts featuring the New York Philharmonic Orchestra as well as recordings by Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz was a Russian-American classical virtuoso pianist and minor composer. His technique and use of tone color and the excitement of his playing were legendary. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.-Life and early...
and Walter Gieseking
Walter Gieseking
Walter Wilhelm Gieseking was a French-born German pianist and composer.-Biography:Born in Lyon, France, the son of a German doctor and lepidopterist, Gieseking first started playing the piano at the age of four, but without formal instruction...
.
While in his teens, Oehler started playing jazz gigs in the Springfield
Springfield, Illinois
Springfield is the third and current capital of the US state of Illinois and the county seat of Sangamon County with a population of 117,400 , making it the sixth most populated city in the state and the second most populated Illinois city outside of the Chicago Metropolitan Area...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
area after he discovered his love of Bud Powell
Bud Powell
Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell was an American Jazz pianist. Powell has been described as one of "the two most significant pianists of the style of modern jazz that came to be known as bop", the other being his friend and contemporary Thelonious Monk...
, Horace Silver
Horace Silver
Horace Silver , born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer....
, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
. He later played at clubs in the Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
area while attending Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
in Evanston, Illinois
Evanston, Illinois
Evanston is a suburban municipality in Cook County, Illinois 12 miles north of downtown Chicago, bordering Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, and Wilmette to the north, with an estimated population of 74,360 as of 2003. It is one of the North Shore communities that adjoin Lake Michigan...
. It was then that he became aware of Gil Evans
Gil Evans
Gil Evans was a jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader, active in the United States...
' work with Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
which became a lifelong influence.
After graduation he went to Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Cedar Rapids is the second largest city in Iowa and is the county seat of Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River, north of Iowa City and east of Des Moines, the state's capital and largest city...
to play with J.R. Monterose at the Tender Trap. Other notables that came through the club were Al Jarreau
Al Jarreau
Alwin "Al" Lopez Jarreau is a seven-time Grammy Award winning jazz singer.- Background :Jarreau was born in Milwaukee, the fifth of six children. His web site refers to Reservoir, Inc., the name of the street where he lived. His father was a Seventh-Day Adventist Church minister and singer, and...
, Dave Sanborn, Freddie Waits
Freddie Waits
Freddie Douglas Waits was a hard bop and post-bop drummer.He was a member of Max Roach's M'Boom percussion orchestra....
and Cecil McBee
Cecil McBee
Cecil McBee is an American post bop jazz bassist, described by the Guinness Who's Who of Jazz as "a full-toned bassist who creates rich, singing phrases in a wide range of contemporary jazz contexts." Allmusic called him "One of post-bop's most advanced and versatile bassists".-Biography:McBee...
. He segued from playing in Cedar Rapids to attending the University of Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
at Iowa City where he pursued his master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in Composition and was able to establish the first Jazz Program at that university. While going to school, he represented the University of Iowa at the University of Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
Jazz Festival in 1965 where he received Best Arranger and Best Pianist awards, as judged by Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
and Clark Terry
Clark Terry
Clark Terry is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the fluegelhorn in jazz, educator, NEA Jazz Masters inductee, and recipient of the 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award...
.
Oehler also played on, what has now become, a collector’s item, J.R. Monterose (Studio 4 Records, 1964). While at the University of Iowa, he arranged his first professional record for Bugsy Maugh (Dot Records
Dot Records
Dot Records was an American record label and company that was active between 1950 and 1977. It was founded by Randy Wood. In Gallatin, Tennessee, Wood had earlier started a mail order record shop, known for its radio ads on WLAC in Nashville and its R&B air personality Bill "Hoss" Allen...
, 1968), which received a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
nomination the following year.
Later career
In 1969, Oehler, now married, moved to the Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
area to pursue a career in music. In the early 1970s, Oehler again met up with J.J. Johnson
J.J. Johnson
J. J. Johnson was a United States jazz trombonist, composer and arranger. He was sometimes credited as Jay Jay Johnson....
, whom had met in the early 1960s when Johnson was with the Miles Davis band. Johnson was responsible for introducing Dale to Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....
, with whom he subsequently arranged "Trouble Man
Trouble Man
Trouble Man is a 1972 blaxploitation film produced and released by 20th Century Fox. The film stars Robert Hooks as "Mr. T.", a hard-edged private detective who tends to take justice into his own hands...
" (1972), which was the main title for the movie of the same name. Also during this period, he reconnected with Tom McIntosh
Tom McIntosh
Thomas S. McIntosh is an American jazz composer and trombonist.McIntosh was born in Baltimore, Maryland and studied at Peabody Conservatory. He played trombone in an Army band, and eventually graduated from Juilliard in 1958. He played in New York City from 1956, with Lee Morgan, Roland Kirk,...
, whom he had first met in 1962 while Tom was with the Art Farmer
Art Farmer
Arthur Stewart "Art" Farmer was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player. He also played flumpet, a trumpet/flugelhorn combination designed for him by David Monette. His identical twin brother, Addison Farmer Arthur Stewart "Art" Farmer (August 21, 1928, Council Bluffs, Iowa –...
and Benny Golson
Benny Golson
Benny Golson is an American bebop/hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger.-Biography:While in high school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Golson played with several other promising young musicians, including John Coltrane, Red Garland, Jimmy Heath, Percy Heath, Philly Joe Jones, and...
Jazztet. Tom was instrumental in providing the opportunity to write various film cues, which included "Shaft’s Big Score." It was on that film that Dale met Freddie Hubbard, following which Freddie asked Dale to arrange his first Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
record, entitled "High Energy" (1974). He also worked on "You Light Up My Life," arranging the title tune for Andre Kostelanetz.
The next major period in Oehler's career began at Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and the blues. At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters...
. Beginning in 1975, he worked with Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson is a jazz vibraphone and marimba player. His vibraphone playing is suggestive of the style of Milt Jackson in its free-flowing melodicism, but his sense of harmony and group interaction is thoroughly modern...
, Carmen McRae
Carmen McRae
Carmen Mercedes McRae was an American jazz singer, composer, pianist, and actress. Considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century, it was her behind-the-beat phrasing and her ironic interpretations of song lyrics that made her memorable...
and Horace Silver. His Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
work included Al Jarreau, Randy Crawford
Randy Crawford
Randy Crawford is an American jazz and R&B singer. She has been more successful in Europe than in the United States, where she has not entered the Billboard Hot 100 as a solo artist...
and Jennifer Holliday
Jennifer Holliday
Jennifer-Yvette Holliday is an African-American singer and Tony Award-winning actress. She started her career on Broadway in musicals such as Dreamgirls, and later became a successful recording artist...
. He also worked on Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
's "Hissing of the Summer Lawns" (Elektra/Asylum).
In 1978, Oehler produced and arranged the Freddie Hubbard album, Super Blue
Super Blue
Super Blue is a 1978 album by jazz musician Freddie Hubbard. It was originally released on the Columbia label and peaked at #6 on the Billboard Charts. The album features performances by Hubbard, Hubert Laws, Joe Henderson and Kenny Barron with George Benson guesting on one track...
, which featured Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. In a career spanning more than forty years Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day and recorded for several prominent labels, including Blue Note.-Early life:From a very large family with five sisters and nine...
, Hubert Laws
Hubert Laws
Hubert Laws is an American flutist and saxophonist with a 40+ year career in jazz, classical, and other music genres. Alongside Herbie Mann, Laws is probably the most recognized and respected jazz flutist...
, Ron Carter
Ron Carter
Ron Carter is an American jazz double-bassist. His appearances on over 2,500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history, along with Milt Hinton, Ray Brown and Leroy Vinnegar. Carter is also an acclaimed cellist who has recorded numerous times on that...
, Jack DeJohnette
Jack DeJohnette
Jack DeJohnette is an American jazz drummer, pianist, and composer. He is one of the most influential jazz drummers of the 20th century, due to extensive work as leader and sideman for musicians like Miles Davis, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett and Sonny...
, Kenny Barron
Kenny Barron
Kenny Barron , is an American jazz pianist. He is the younger brother of tenor saxophonist Bill Barron, and known for his lyrical, adaptive style.-Biography:...
and George Benson
George Benson
George Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....
. This album was designed to provide a return to Freddie’s jazz roots while still being commercially viable.
During the 1990s, Oehler's credits included work on albums for Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...
, Kirk Whalum
Kirk Whalum
Kirk Whalum is an American smooth jazz saxophonist and songwriter. He toured as Whitney Houston's opening act for several years. Whalum has also recorded a series of well received solo albums and film soundtracks, with music ranging from pop to R&B to smooth jazz...
, Joe Sample
Joe Sample
Joseph Leslie "Joe" Sample is an American pianist, keyboard player and composer.He is one of the founding members of the Jazz Crusaders, the band which became simply The Crusaders in 1971, and remained a part of the group until its final album in 1991 .- Biography :Sample began playing the piano...
, Diane Schuur
Diane Schuur
Diane Schuur is an American jazz singer and pianist. Nicknamed "Deedles", she has won two Grammy Awards, headlined many of the world's most prestigious music venues, including Carnegie Hall and The White House and has toured the world performing with such greats as Quincy Jones, Stan Getz, B. B...
and Mark Whitfield
Mark Whitfield
Mark Whitfield is an American hard bop and soul-jazz guitarist born in Syosset, New York, probably better known for his recordings as bandleader for both the Verve and Warner Bros. Records record labels...
(featuring Diana Krall
Diana Krall
Diana Jean Krall, OC, OBC is a Canadian jazz pianist and singer, known for her contralto vocals. She has sold more than 6 million albums in the US and over 15 million worldwide; altogether, she has sold more albums than any other female jazz artist during the 1990s and 2000s...
).
Dale currently resides in Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
and plays golf as often as the weather allows.
As producer
| Title | Year | Label | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carnival of the Spirits (Moacir Santos, artist) | 1975 | Blue Note Records|Blue Note | ||
| Montara (Bobby Hutcherson, artist) | 1975 | Blue Note Records|Blue Note | ||
| Can’t Hide Love (Carmen McRae, artist) | 1976 | Blue Note Records | ||
| Waiting (Bobby Hutcherson, artist) | 1976 | Blue Note Records | ||
| Knucklebean (Bobby Hutcherson, artist) | 1977 | Blue Note Records | ||
| Promise Me the Moon (Dave Sanborn, artist) | 1977 | Warner Bros. Records | ||
| View from the Inside (Bobby Hutcherson, artist) | 1977 | Blue Note Records | ||
| Super Blue (Freddie Hubbard, artist) | 1978 | Columbia Records | ||
| Un Poco Loco (Bobby Hutcherson, artist) | 1980 | Columbia Records |
As arranger
| Title | Year | Label | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inside Bugsy (Bugsy Maugh, artist)]' | 1968 | Dot Records | ||
| Shaft’s Big Score (film cues) | 1972 | MGM | ||
| Trouble Man (Marvin Gaye, artist) | 1972 | Tamla | ||
| High Energy (Freddie Hubbard, artist) | 1974 | Columbia | ||
| Willie Dynamite (film cues) | 1974 | MCA | ||
| Hissing of the Summer Lawns (Joni Mitchell, artist | 1975 | Elektra/Asylum | ||
| Who Is This Bitch, Anyway? (Marlena Shaw, artist) | 1975 | Blue Note Records | ||
| Can’t Hide Love (Carmen McRae, artist | 1976 | Blue Note | ||
| Glow (Al Jarreau, artist)]' | 1976 | Warner Bros. | ||
| Promise Me the Moon (Dave Sanborn, artist) | 1977 | Warner Bros. | ||
| You Light Up My Life (Andre Kostelanetz, artist) | 1978 | Columbia Records | ||
| Super Blue (Freddie Hubbard, artist) | 1978 | Columbia Records | ||
| Blue Note Meets the L.A. Philharmonic (Bobby Hutcherson, artist) | 1978 | Blue Note Records | ||
| Silver and Strings, (Horace Silver, artist) | 1978 | Blue Note Records | ||
| Suspended Animation (Randy Crawford, artist) | 1979 | Warner Bros. Records | ||
| Un Poco Loco (Bobby Hutcherson, artist) | 1980 | Columbia Records | ||
| Secret Combination (Randy Crawford, artist) | 1981 | Warner Bros. Records | ||
| Nightline, (Randy Crawford, artist) | 1983 | Warner Bros. Records | ||
| Say You Love Me, (Jennifer Holliday, artist) | 1985 | Warner Bros. Records | ||
| All the Way (Jimmy Scott, artist) | 1992 | Sire Records | ||
| Invitation (Joe Sample, artist) | 1993 | Warner Bros. Records | ||
| Something Special (Dolly Parton, artist) | 1995 | Sony Records | ||
| In This Life (Kirk Whalum, artist) | 1995 | Columbia Records | ||
| Love Walked In (Diane Schuur, artist) | 1995 | Verve Records | ||
| Forever Love (Mark Whitfield, artist; feat. Diana Krall) | 1997 | Verve Records |
As player
| Title | Year | Label | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| J.R. Monterose (J.R. Monterose, artist) | 1964 | Studio 4 | ||
| Inside Bugsy (Bugsy Maugh, artist) | 1968 | Dot Records | ||
| Promise Me the Moon (David Sanborn, artist) | 1977 | Warner Bros. | ||
| Super Blue (Freddie Hubbard, artist) | 1978 | Columbia Records | ||
| Live at the Tender Trap (Reissue) | 1993 | Fresh Sound |