Phil Moore (February 20, 1918 – May 13, 1987) was an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

pianist, arranger, and

bandleader A bandleader is the leader of a music group such as a rock or pop band or jazz quartet. The term is most commonly 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 ...

Biography

Moore was orphaned and placed in a county hospital in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

. He attended the

Cornish School Cornish College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art college in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1914. History Cornish College of the Arts was founded in 1914 as the Cornish School of Music, by Nellie Cornish (1876–1956), a teacher of p ...

and the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

. When Moore was 13, he played piano at speakeasies and small venues in Portland. In 1937 He married Neva Mary Peoples; a pianist, actress and a vocalist of San Francisco, Ca. He supported

Lena Horne Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an American dancer, actress, singer, and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned more than seventy years, appearing in film, television, and theatre. Horne joined the chorus of th ...

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...

Bobby Short Robert Waltrip Short (September 15, 1924 – March 21, 2005) was an American cabaret singer and pianist, who interpreted songs by popular composers from the first half of the 20th century such as Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Harold ...

Marshal Royal Marshal Walton Royal Jr. (December 5, 1912 – May 8, 1995) was an American jazz alto saxophonist and clarinetist best known for his work with Count Basie, with whose band he played for nearly twenty years. Early life and education Marshal Royal ...

Irving Ashby Irving Conrad Ashby (December 29, 1920 – April 22, 1987) was an African-American jazz guitarist. Ashby was born in Somerville, Massachusetts and started playing guitar when he was nine. His career started in 1940 when he became a member of L ...

Julie Wilson Julie May Wilson (October 21, 1924 – April 5, 2015) was an American singer and actress widely regarded as "the queen of cabaret". She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical in 1989 for her performance in ''Leg ...

, Gene Sedric,

Les Hite Les Hite (February 13, 1903 – February 6, 1962) was an American jazz bandleader. Life and career Born in DuQuoin, Illinois, United States, Hite attended the University of Illinois and played saxophone with family members in a band in the 1920s. ...

, and

Helen Gallagher Helen Gallagher (born July 19, 1926) is an American actress, dancer, and singer. She is the recipient of three Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, and a Drama Desk Award. Early years Born in Brooklyn, she was raised in Scarsdale, New York, and the Br ...

. He arranged big-band music for the

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

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 ...

orchestras. In 1946, he played the role of a band leader in a short

B movie A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feature ...

, ''Stars on Parade''. About this time, his relationship with

Dorothy Dandridge Dorothy Jean Dandridge (November 9, 1922 – September 8, 1965) was an American actress, singer and dancer. She is the first African-American film star to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, which was for her performance in ''Ca ...

helped bring her success in a nightclub singing career. Moore served as vocal coach for other performers in Hollywood, including

Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...

and

Ava Gardner Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress. She first signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew critics' attention in 1946 with her perform ...

. Phil Moore worked at

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

and

Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...

studios as an arranger. He worked on scores for over 30 films, although rarely received a screen credit; it has been speculated that this was due to his race. These included ''

Ziegfeld Girl Ziegfeld Girls were the chorus girls and showgirls from Florenz Ziegfeld's theatrical Broadway revue spectaculars known as the ''Ziegfeld Follies'' (1907–1931), in New York City, which were based on the Folies Bergère of Paris. Descripti ...

'', ''

Dumbo ''Dumbo'' is a 1941 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The fourth Disney animated feature film, it is based upon the storyline written by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl, a ...

'', '' Three Cheers for the Boys'', ''

Panama Hattie ''Panama Hattie'' is a 1940 American musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter and book by Herbert Fields and B. G. DeSylva. The musical is about a nightclub owner, Hattie Maloney, who lives in the Panama Canal Zone and ends up dealing with ...

'', ''

Presenting Lily Mars ''Presenting Lily Mars'' is a 1943 American musical comedy film directed by Norman Taurog, produced by Joe Pasternak, starring Judy Garland and Van Heflin, and based on the novel by Booth Tarkington. The film is often cited as Garland's first film ...

'', '' Cabin in the Sky'', the 1944 production of '' Kismet'', and ''

This Gun for Hire ''This Gun for Hire'' is a 1942 American film noir crime film directed by Frank Tuttle and starring Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, Laird Cregar, and Alan Ladd. It is based on the 1936 novel ''A Gun for Sale'' by Graham Greene (published in Amer ...

''. During the late 1940s, Moore toured with his group, the Phil Moore Four:

Milt Hinton Milton John Hinton (June 23, 1910 – December 19, 2000) was an American double bassist and photographer. Regarded as the Dean of American jazz bass players, his nicknames included "Sporty" from his years in Chicago, "Fump" from his time on the ...

(bass), Marty Wilson (drums), Johnny Letman (trumpet), and Jimmy Lyons (saxophone or guitar). He recorded for

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Aris ...

ith Doles Dickens (bass), Walter Bishop (drums), Edward Leroy Gibbs (guitar), and Remo Palmieri (electric guitar)

Musicraft Musicraft Records was a record company and label established in 1937 in New York City. Catalogue Musicraft's catalog encompassed many different musical styles, including classical music, folk, jazz, Latin, popular vocal, and calypso. Artists wh ...

John_Levy_(bass),_Walter_Bishop_(drums),_unknown_(guitar),_and_Johnny_Letman_(trumpet).html" ;"title="John_Levy_(musician).html" ;"title="/Doles Dickens or John_Levy_(bass),_Walter_Bishop_(drums),_unknown_(guitar),_and_Johnny_Letman_(trumpet)">John_Levy_(musician).html"_;"title="/Doles_Dickens_or_John_Levy_(musician)">John_Levy_(bass),_Walter_Bishop_(drums),_unknown_(guitar),_and_Johnny_Letman_(trumpet)_and_Black_&_White_Records.html" ;"title="John Levy (musician)">John Levy (bass), Walter Bishop (drums), unknown (guitar), and Johnny Letman (trumpet)">John_Levy_(musician).html" ;"title="/Doles Dickens or John Levy (musician)">John Levy (bass), Walter Bishop (drums), unknown (guitar), and Johnny Letman (trumpet) and Black & White Records">Black & White Records [w/Billy Hadnott (bass), Lee Young (drums), and Irving Ashby (electric guitar)] during this time. He was a movie industry vocal and stagecraft grooming coach in the early careers of many, most notably

and

. From the late 1950s he gained, and maintained until his death, a wide commercial reputation in the grooming and coaching of aspiring black and white singers, starting a school in New York named "For Singers Only." In 1953, he recorded two bebop Christmas songs for RCA Victor — "Blink Before Christmas" and "Chinchy Old Scrooge". Created in the heyday of the "beat" era, these songs were thick with 1950s hipster slang, in the style of jazz-based pre-rap songs. This recording has become a rare collector's item. Moore died on May 13, 1987 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, aged 69.

Discography

As leader

* ''Dance and Dream with Phil Moore at the Piano, Volume 1'' (Black & White, 1946) – 78rpm 4-disc album set. * ''Eventide: Phil Moore Orchestra'' (Discovery, 1949) – 10" LP. * ''Reminiscing: Phil Moore at the Piano'' (Discovery, 1949) – 10" LP. * ''Music for Moderns'' (Clef, recorded 1947, released 195?) * ''Fantasy for Girl and Orchestra'' (Verve, recorded 1947, released 1956) * ''Portrait of Leda'' /Leda Annest(Columbia, 1958) * ''Polynesian Paradise'' (Strand, 1959) * ''Moore's Tour: An American in England'' (MGM, 1959) * ''New York Sweet'' (Mercury, 1963)

As sideman

With

Gil Fuller Walter Gilbert "Gil" Fuller (April 14, 1920, Los Angeles, California – May 26, 1994, San Diego, California) was an American jazz arranger. He is no relation to the jazz trumpeter and vocalist Walter Fuller (musician), Walter "Rosetta" Fuller. I ...

*'' Gil Fuller & the Monterey Jazz Festival Orchestra featuring Dizzy Gillespie'' (Pacific Jazz #PJ-93, 1965)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Phil 1918 births 1987 deaths Jazz musicians from New Orleans University of Washington alumni Musicians from Portland, Oregon 20th-century American musicians Discovery Records artists 20th-century African-American musicians