J. Hill (born James Hill) is an American music

arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

who worked extensively in his earlier years as a brass player in

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 an ...

s, later on taking up music arranging. He has received three

Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

. For Les Brown Orchestra, he composed many arrangements. He eventually spread out into freelance arranging, doing charts for

Lawrence Welk Lawrence Welk (March 11, 1903 – May 17, 1992) was an American accordionist, bandleader, and television impresario, who hosted the ''The Lawrence Welk Show'' from 1951 to 1982. His style came to be known as "champagne music" to his radio, tele ...

Harry James Harry Haag James (March 15, 1916 – July 5, 1983) was an American musician who is best known as a trumpet-playing band leader who led a big band from 1939 to 1946. He broke up his band for a short period in 1947 but shortly after he reorganized ...

, Bob Hope, and others. He also became chief arranger for the first four years of the

Dean Martin Show ''The Dean Martin Show'', not to be confused with the ''Dean Martin Variety Show'' (1959–1960), is a TV Variety show, variety-Television comedy, comedy series that ran from 1965 to 1974 for 264 episodes. It was broadcast by NBC and hosted by Dea ...

(which featured Bandleader "Les Brown and his Band of Renown"), producing orchestrations for Dean and his co-stars to sing behind. He was eventually replaced on the show by

Van Alexander Van Alexander (May 2, 1915 – July 19, 2015) was an American bandleader, arranger, and composer. Early years Van Alexander was born Alexander Van Vliet Feldman in Harlem. His mother was a classical pianist, and she taught him to play the piano. ...

who did the remainder of the show's run.

Discography

With

*'' Wild About Harry!'' (Capitol Records – ST 874, 1957) *'' The New James'' (Capitol Records – ST 1037, 1958) *'' Harry's Choice!'' (Capitol Records – ST 1093, 1958)

Notes

External links

* American music arrangers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people {{US-music-bio-stub