An idiosyncratic composer/arranger/player who left jazz for other pursuits. He was Reid Miles predecessor as designer of Blue Note record covers. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Gil Mellé (born Gilbert John Mellé) (31 December 1931 – 28 October 2004) was an American artist, jazz musician and film composer. In the 1950s, Mellés paintings and sculptures were shown in New York galleries and he created the cover art for albums by Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins. Mellé played the tenor and baritone saxophone with George Wallington, Max Roach, Tal Farlow, Oscar Pettiford, Ed Thigpen, Kenny Dorham and Zoot Sims, and led a number of sessions recorded for the Blue Note and Prestige labels between 1953 and 1957. It was Mellé who introduced engineer Rudy Van Gelder to Alfred Lion, the Blue Note Records founder, in 1952. Lion had been impressed with the sound of Mellés recordings, which were engineered by Van Gelder. Van Gelder was responsible for hundreds of recordings on Blue Note, virtually every session on the label from 1953 to 1967. As a film and television composer, Mellé was one of the first to use electronic instruments (which he built himself), either alone or as an added voice among the string, wind, brass, and percussion sections of the orchestra. He was the first to compose a main theme for an American television series arranged entirely for electronic instruments (Rod Serlings Night Gallery). His film and television credits span 125 motion pictures including My Sweet Charlie, That Certain Summer, The Savage is Loose, The Andromeda Strain, Starship Invasions, The Judge and Jake Wyler, several Columbo TV movies, Frankenstein: The True Story, The Six Million Dollar Man, Night Gallery and Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Mellé died of a heart attack at his home in Malibu, California in October 2004. Calling the French horn players, Mark Taylor, Tom Varner for Julius Watkins contribution.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 21:19:41 +0000
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