Pete Rugolo


Pietro "Pete" Rugolo was an American jazz composer, arranger and record producer.

Life and career

Rugolo was born in San Piero Patti, Sicily. His family emigrated to the United States in 1920 and settled in Santa Rosa, California. He began his career in music playing the baritone horn, like his father, but he quickly branched out into other instruments, notably the French horn and the piano. He received a bachelor's degree from San Francisco State College and then went on to study composition with Darius Milhaud at Mills College in Oakland, California and earn his master's degree.
After he graduated, he was hired as an arranger and composer by guitarist and bandleader Johnny Richards. He spent World War II playing with altoist Paul Desmond in an Army band. After the war, Rugolo worked for Stan Kenton. He and songwriter Joe Greene collaborated on songs that made Kenton's band one of America's most popular.
While Rugolo continued to work occasionally with Kenton in the 1950s, he spent more time creating arrangements for pop and jazz vocalists, most extensively with former Kenton singer June Christy on such albums as Something Cool, The Misty Miss Christy, Fair and Warmer!, Gone for the Day, and The Song Is June!
During this period, he worked on film musicals at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and in the late 1950s he served as an A&R director for Mercury Records. Among his albums were Adventures in Rhythm, Introducing Pete Rugolo, Rugolomania, , and Music for Hi-Fi Bugs. Rugolo's arrangements for the album The Four Freshmen and Five Trombones propelled the group to recognition in jazz circles. It was their bestselling album.

Television and film scoring

In the 1960s and 1970s, Rugolo did a great deal of work in television, contributing music to a number of popular series including Leave It to Beaver, Thriller, The Thin Man, Checkmate, The Fugitive, Run for Your Life, Felony Squad, , Alias Smith and Jones and Family.
He provided scores for a number of TV movies and a few theatrical films, such as Jack the Ripper, The Sweet Ride, Underground Aces and Chu Chu and the Philly Flash.
In 1962 he released an album of themes from popular television series, TV's Top Themes, which included his composition for the 1961 CBS sitcom Ichabod and Me. Rugolo's small combo jazz music featured in a couple of numbers in the popular movie Where the Boys Are under the guise of Frank Gorshin's "Dialectic Jazz Band".

Death

Rugolo died at the age of 95 on October 16, 2011 in Sherman Oaks, California.

Discography

With Nat King Cole
With June Christy
With Robert Clary
With Buddy Collette
With The Diamonds
With Vernon Duke
With Billy Eckstein
With The Four Freshmen
With Paul Horn
With Stan Kenton
With Ruth Olay
With Patti Page