Bob Bain (26 January 1924 – 21 June 2018) was an American guitarist mainly known for his film music contributions, including “

Dr. Zhivago ''Doctor Zhivago'' is the title of a novel by Boris Pasternak and its various adaptations. Description The story, in all of its forms, describes the life of the fictional Russian physician and poet Yuri Zhivago and deals with love and loss during ...

” (1965), where he played the balalaika in the score for certain scenes where “Lara’s Theme” is heard.

Career

Bain's professional career began in the 1940s playing guitar in popular

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...

outfits led by

Tommy Dorsey Thomas Francis Dorsey Jr. (November 19, 1905 – November 26, 1956) was an American jazz trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the big band era. He was known as the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" because of his smooth-toned trombo ...

and

Bob Crosby George Robert Crosby (August 23, 1913 – March 9, 1993) was an American jazz singer and bandleader, best known for his group the Bob-Cats, which formed around 1935. The Bob-Cats were a New Orleans Dixieland-style jazz octet. He was the young ...

. He is credited with guitar on one of Dorsey's biggest hits, " Opus No. 1". He was an unusually early adopter of the electric guitar, playing an early

Gibson Les Paul The Gibson Les Paul is a solid body electric guitar that was first sold by the Gibson Guitar Corporation in 1952. The guitar was designed by factory manager John Huis and his team with input from and endorsement by guitarist Les Paul. Its typ ...

model before switching to a modified 1953

Fender Telecaster The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is an electric guitar produced by Fender. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it is the world's first mass-produced, commercially successful Les Paul had built a prototype solid bo ...

. Like most jazz guitarists, he also favoured semi-acoustic models such as the

Gibson L-5 The Gibson L-5 guitar was first produced in 1923 by the Gibson Guitar Corporation, then of Kalamazoo, Michigan, under the direction of acoustical engineer and designer Lloyd Loar, and has been in production ever since. It was considered the pr ...

and ES-150. In 2017, the Fender Custom Shop did a limited edition replication of Bain's 1953 Telecaster, called the Bob Bain Son of A Gunn Telecaster. 30 were hand-built by Fender master builder Paul Waller. Bain was long time collaborator with composer

Henry Mancini Henry Mancini ( ; born Enrico Nicola Mancini, ; April 16, 1924 – June 14, 1994) was an American composer, conductor, arranger, pianist and flautist. Often cited as one of the greatest composers in the history of film, he won four Academy Award ...

. He is also credited with the guitar introduction to the theme from the popular 1950s television private detective series "

Peter Gunn ''Peter Gunn'' is an American private eye television series, starring Craig Stevens as Peter Gunn with Lola Albright as his girlfriend, Edie Hart. The series aired on NBC from September 22, 1958, to 1960 and on ABC in 1960–1961. The seri ...

". The soundtrack album from the series features several other memorable contributions of Bain's. Bain also contributed guitar on another of Mancini's significant soundtrack albums, the musical score to the movie " Breakfast at Tiffany's", as well as playing on the soundtrack to the television Western series "

Bonanza ''Bonanza'' is an American Western television series that ran on NBC from September 13, 1959, to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 432 episodes, ''Bonanza'' is NBC's longest-running western, the second-longest-running western series on ...

Discography

* 1958: ''Rockin' Rollin' Strollin' '' ( Capitol) * 1958: ''Theme from "Peter Gunn"'' (

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

) * 1960: ''Latin Love'' (Capitol) * 1960: ''Guitar De Amor'' (Capitol) * 2014: ''The Guitars of Bob Bain'' (Blue Moon Producciones Discográficas S.L.)

References

External links

Bob Bain entry at IMDb
1924 births 2018 deaths 20th-century American guitarists American jazz guitarists American music arrangers American session musicians Contemporary Records artists Jazz musicians from Illinois Guitarists from Chicago West Coast jazz guitarists American male guitarists Mainstream jazz guitarists 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians {{US-jazz-guitarist-stub