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Melvin "Sy" Oliver (December 17, 1910 in Battle Creek, Michigan
Battle Creek, Michigan

Battle Creek is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan, in northwest Calhoun County, Michigan, at the confluence of the Kalamazoo River and Battle Creek Rivers....
 – May 28, 1988 in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
) was a jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 arranger, trumpeter, composer
Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....
, singer and bandleader
Bandleader

A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....
. His mother was a piano teacher and his father was a multi-instrumentalist who made a name for himself demonstrating saxophone
Saxophone

The saxophone is a conical-Bore transposing instrument musical instrument considered a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and are played with a Single-reed instrument mouthpiece similar to the clarinet....
s at a time that instrument was little used outside of marching bands.

Oliver left home at 17 to play with Zack Whyte
Zack Whyte

Zack Whyte was an American jazz bandleader, best known for leading the territory band the Chocolate Beau Brummels.Whyte studied at Wilberforce University, where he played banjo with Horace Henderson and arranged pieces for him....
 and his Chocolate Beau Brummels and later with Alphonse Trent
Alphonse Trent

Alphonse Trent was an American jazz pianist and territory band leader.Trent played piano since childhood and worked in local bands in Arkansas through his youth....
.






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Melvin "Sy" Oliver (December 17, 1910 in Battle Creek, Michigan
Battle Creek, Michigan

Battle Creek is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan, in northwest Calhoun County, Michigan, at the confluence of the Kalamazoo River and Battle Creek Rivers....
 – May 28, 1988 in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
) was a jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 arranger, trumpeter, composer
Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....
, singer and bandleader
Bandleader

A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....
. His mother was a piano teacher and his father was a multi-instrumentalist who made a name for himself demonstrating saxophone
Saxophone

The saxophone is a conical-Bore transposing instrument musical instrument considered a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and are played with a Single-reed instrument mouthpiece similar to the clarinet....
s at a time that instrument was little used outside of marching bands.

Oliver left home at 17 to play with Zack Whyte
Zack Whyte

Zack Whyte was an American jazz bandleader, best known for leading the territory band the Chocolate Beau Brummels.Whyte studied at Wilberforce University, where he played banjo with Horace Henderson and arranged pieces for him....
 and his Chocolate Beau Brummels and later with Alphonse Trent
Alphonse Trent

Alphonse Trent was an American jazz pianist and territory band leader.Trent played piano since childhood and worked in local bands in Arkansas through his youth....
. He sang and played trumpet with these bands, becoming known for his "growling" horn playing.

He joined Jimmie Lunceford
Jimmie Lunceford

James Melvin "Jimmie" Lunceford was an United States jazz alto saxophonist and bandleader of the swing era.Lunceford was born in Fulton, Missouri, but attended school in Denver and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at Fisk University....
's band in 1933 and contributed many hit arrangements to the band, including "My Blue Heaven" and "Ain't She Sweet". In 1939, he became one of the first African Americans with a prominent role in a white band when he joined Tommy Dorsey
Tommy Dorsey

Tommy Dorsey was an United States jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big band era. He was the younger brother of Jimmy Dorsey....
 as an arranger, though he ceased playing trumpet at that time. (Fletcher Henderson
Fletcher Henderson

Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr. was an United States pianist, bandleader, arrangement and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and Swing ....
 joined the Benny Goodman
Benny Goodman

Benjamin David Goodman, was an United States jazz musician, clarinetist and bandleader, known as "King of Swing ", "Patriarch of the Clarinet", "The Professor", and "Swing's Senior Statesman"....
 orchestra as the arranger in the same year.) He led the transition of the Dorsey band from Dixieland
Dixieland

Dixieland music or sometimes referred to as Hot jazz or New Orleans jazz is a style of jazz which developed in New Orleans, Louisiana at the start of the 20th century, and was spread to Chicago and New York City by New Orleans bands in the 1910s....
 to modern big band
Big band

A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with playing jazz music and which became popular during the swing from the early 1930s until the late 1940s....
. His joining was instrumental in Buddy Rich
Buddy Rich

Bernard "Buddy" Rich was an United States Jazz drumming, bandleader and former Marine. Rich was billed as "the world's greatest drummer" and was known for his virtuoso technique, power, and speed....
's decision to join Dorsey. His arrangement of "On the Sunny Side of the Street" was a big hit for Dorsey, as were his own compositions "Yes Indeed" (a gospel
Gospel music

Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
-jazz tune that was later recorded by Ray Charles
Ray Charles

Ray Charles Robinson , known by his stage name Ray Charles, was an United States pianist, singer, and songwriter who shaped the sound of rhythm and blues....
), "Opus One
Opus No. 1 (1943 song)

"Opus No. 1" is a popular song, composed in 1943 in music by Sy Oliver, with lyrics by Sid Garris.The song was a big hit for the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in 1944 in music....
," "The Minor is Muggin'," "T.D.'s Boogie Woogie," and "Well, Git It."

After leaving Dorsey, Oliver continued working as a free-lance arranger---one of his more successful such efforts was the Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an United States singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a solo artist with great success in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby soxers"....
 album I Remember Tommy
I Remember Tommy

I Remember Tommy is an album by Frank Sinatra, released in 1961.As the title suggests, the album is an affectionate tribute to Tommy Dorsey, the legendary bandleader who helped elevate Frank Sinatra to stardom....
, a combined tribute to each man's former boss---and as music director for Decca Records
Decca Records

Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 in music by Edward Lewis . Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; later the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
.

In later years, up until 1980, he led his own jazz band, for which he took up the trumpet again.

Selected discography

  • For Jimmie Lunceford:
    • Stomp it Off (1934-1935 Decca recordings) (GRP CD)
    • Swingsation (1935-1939 Decca recordings) (1998 GRP CD)
    • Lunceford Special (1939 Columbia recordings) (ca 1975 Columbia LP)
    • Rhythm is Our Business (1933-1940, both periods and record companies, successively) (ASV CD)
  • For Tommy Dorsey:
    • Yes, Indeed! (1939-1945 RCA recordings) (Bluebird CD)
    • The Popular Frank Sinatra, Vol. 1, with the Pied Pipers (1940-1941 RCA recordings) (Bluebird CD)
  • For Ella Fitzgerald:
    • Ella: The Legendary Decca Recordings (1938-1955 Decca recordings) (GRP 4-CD box)


  • Under his own name:
    • Sway it with flowers(1958 Decca)
    • Sentimental Sy (1958 Dot)
    • Backstage (1959 Dot)
    • I can get it for you wholesale (1962 Columbia)
    • Easy walker (1962 Sesac)
    • Take me back ! (1972 Flac)
    • Yes Indeed ! (1973 Black and Blue)
    • Above all (1976)


See also

  • Arrangement
    Arrangement

    In music, an arrangement is either a rewriting of a piece of existing music with additional new material or a fleshing-out of a compositional sketch, such as a lead sheet....
  • Swing music


External links

  • , the collection of his personal scores and papers, in the of .