Steve Rawlins is an American musician, composer, arranger, musical director, and author. He has arranged music for a wide range of recording artists, including

Smokey Robinson William "Smokey" Robinson Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and former record executive director. He was the founder and front man of the Motown vocal group the Miracles, for which he was also chief ...

Bette Midler Bette Midler (;''Inside the Actors Studio'', 2004 born December 1, 1945) is an American singer, actress, comedian and author. Throughout her career, which spans over five decades, Midler has received List of awards and nominations received by Be ...

Chaka Khan Yvette Marie Stevens (born March 23, 1953), better known by her stage name Chaka Khan (), is an American singer. Her career has spanned more than five decades, beginning in the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the funk band Rufus. Known as the " Qu ...

Anna Danes Anna Danes (born July 4, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter, speaker, writer and music event producer. '' Find Your Wings'', her second album, a collection of jazz standards and original songs was released in 2016, and peaked at #22 on the ja ...

, and Lainie Kazan. He produced the single ''Angelito'' (Angel Baby), recorded by Isela Sotelo on

Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...

Latino Records, which charted on Latin Billboard's Hot 100 in 1982. He has arranged music for the Academy Awards and

Emmy Award 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 ...

ceremonies, and for multiple television shows, including The Crazy Ones, 24, and Jeopardy!. Rawlins has performed throughout the U.S. and internationally including

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

and the

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...

and served as music director for such artists as John O'Hurley, Lainie Kazan,

Steve March-Tormé Steve March-Tormé (born January 29, 1953) is an American singer/actor/songwriter and radio host. He is the son of the singer Mel Tormé and actress Candy Toxton. They divorced and Toxton married actor/comedian Hal March who became Steve's s ...

, Shea Arender, and The Wonderful Wizard of Song-The Music of

Harold Arlen Harold Arlen (born Hyman Arluck; February 15, 1905 – April 23, 1986) was an American composer of popular music, who composed over 500 songs, a number of which have become known worldwide. In addition to composing the songs for the 1939 film ...

Early life

Steve Rawlins (born September 5, 1954) was born in Mineola, New York to parents Gloria (née Gluck) and Herbert Rawitz. His father was an aerospace engineer that worked on NASA's

Project Gemini Project Gemini () was NASA's second human spaceflight program. Conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, Gemini started in 1961 and concluded in 1966. The Gemini spacecraft carried a two-astronaut crew. Ten Gemini crews and 16 individual ...

. Rawlins is the second born of three siblings. He began taking piano lessons at six years old and began playing the trumpet at nine years old and played both instruments consistently throughout his childhood. He and his family relocated to Los Angeles, California in 1965 when Rawlins was eleven years old. His parents frequented live CBS variety television show tapings as a part of the audience and sat next to the orchestra which influenced Rawlins in choosing a career as a professional musician. He attended University High School (Los Angeles) where the school's big band singer was Lorna Luft (daughter of Judy Garland) and Rawlins wrote some of his earliest arrangements for her to sing. His music teacher John Magruder, (who played baritone saxophone with Don Ellis) mentored him in music arranging and career direction. He graduated high school in 1972. While attending CSUN, (California State University at Northridge) Rawlins saw a notice on a bulletin board that composer/arranger Sammy Nestico was teaching a big band and was looking for musicians at nearby

Pierce College Pierce College may refer to: * Pierce College (Washington) * Los Angeles Pierce College ** Pierce College station See also * Peirce College * Franklin Pierce University Franklin Pierce University is a private university in Rindge, New Hampshi ...

. Rawlins joined the band for the next two years learning much from Nestico in advanced composition and orchestration techniques.

Career

In 1974 Rawlins played keyboards with a top 40 band touring throughout Western Canada. Upon returning to Los Angeles in 1975 he began writing music for The Merv Griffin Show and was offered a position as a staff arranger and music librarian. Griffin's featured trumpet player, Jack Sheldon, introduced Rawlins to

Benny Goodman Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader known as the "King of Swing". From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing big bands in the United States. His co ...

to write arrangements that were featured in his 40th Anniversary Concert at

. In 1979, Rawlins was hired by

John Davidson (entertainer) John Hamilton Davidson (born December 13, 1941) is an American actor, singer, and game-show host known for hosting ''That's Incredible!,'' ''Time Machine,'' and ''Hollywood Squares'' in the 1980s, and a revival of ''The $100,000 Pyramid'' in ...

as an arranger at his ''John Davidson's Singer's Summer Camp'' (JDSSC) on Catalina Island then hired him to write for his show in Las Vegas and Rawlins went on to compose and arrange music for his ''The John Davidson Show'', which aired for two years. He continued to freelance as a musician, composer and arranger for various commercials, TV shows, and recording projects.

Isela Sotelo - ''Angelito'' (Angel Baby) - Motown Latino Records

Rawlins produced and arranged Isela Sotelo's radio charting single, ''Angelito'' (Angel Baby) released on Motown Latino Records which was earned a spot on the Billboard Hot 100 Latin music charts in 1982.

Step Right Up

Before the release of his album ''Step Right Up'' (released on Sea Breeze Records) in 1985, Rawitz decided to legally change his last name to ''Rawlins'' for the sake of easier pronunciation and spelling. The song, ''Laguna'' was played on radio stations throughout the U.S. and was in regular rotation on KTWV (94.7 ''The Wave'') in Los Angeles in 1985.

Steve March-Tormé

Rawlins began working with

in 1996 as an arranger, composer, and pianist and continues to work with him. Rawlins co-wrote the title track, ''Swingin' at the Blue Moon Bar & Grille'' as well as arranged ''

Straighten Up and Fly Right "Straighten Up and Fly Right" is a 1943 song written by Nat King Cole and Irving Mills and one of the first vocal hits for the King Cole Trio. It was the trio's most popular single, reaching number one on the Harlem Hit Parade for ten nonconsec ...

'' which March-Tormé recorded as a duet with his father,

Mel Tormé Melvin Howard Tormé (September 13, 1925 – June 5, 1999), nicknamed "The Velvet Fog", was an American musician, singer, composer, arranger, drummer, actor, and author. He composed the music for "The Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts Roasting on an Op ...

Discography

Film and television

Author

In 1995 while attending the NAMM Show Rawlins met John Haag, who was the president of Creative Concepts Publishing. Haag published Rawlins' ''How To Get Real With A Fake Book'' Shortly thereafter Hal Leonard LLC bought out Creative Concepts Publishing and hired Haag as a consultant who oversaw the rest of Rawlins' ''Hal Leonard'' releases.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rawlins, Steve Living people American jazz musicians 1954 births People from Mineola, New York American pianists 21st-century American pianists