Milton "Shorty" Rogers (born Milton Rajonsky; April 14, 1924 – November 7, 1994) was an American jazz musician, one of the principal creators of West Coast jazz. He played trumpet and flugelhorn and was in demand for his skills as an arranger.

Biography

Rogers was born as Milton Rajonsky in

Great Barrington, Massachusetts Great Barrington is a New England town, town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 7,172 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Bot ...

, United States. He worked first as a professional musician with Will Bradley and Red Norvo. From 1947 to 1949, he worked extensively with Woody Herman and in 1950 and 1951 he played with

Stan Kenton Stanley Newcomb Kenton (December 15, 1911 – August 25, 1979) was an American popular music and jazz artist. As a pianist, composer, arranger and band leader, he led an innovative and influential jazz orchestra for almost four decades. Though ...

. On June 7, 1953, Rogers and his orchestra, including

Johnny "Guitar" Watson John Watson Jr. (February 3, 1935 – May 17, 1996), often known professionally as Johnny "Guitar" Watson, was an American musician. A flamboyant showman and electric guitarist in the style of T-Bone Walker, his recording career spanned 40 year ...

, performed for the famed ninth Cavalcade of Jazz concert at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, produced by Leon Hefflin, Sr. Also featured that day were Roy Brown and his Orchestra, Don Tosti and His Mexican Jazzmen,

Earl Bostic Eugene Earl Bostic (April25, 1913October28, 1965) was an American alto saxophonist. Bostic's recording career was diverse, his musical output encompassing jazz, swing music, swing, jump blues and the post-war American rhythm and blues style, whi ...

, Nat "King" Cole, and

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...

and his All Stars with Velma Middleton. From 1953 through 1962, Rogers recorded a series of albums for RCA Victor (later reissued on RCA's Bluebird label) including ''Shorty Courts the Count'' (Shorty Rogers and His Orchestra, 1954), as well as a series of albums for

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

with his own group, Shorty Rogers and His Giants, including ''The Swinging Mr. Rogers'' (1955), and ''Martians Come Back'' (1955), the album title alluding to the tune "Martians Go Home" which Rogers had composed and performed on ''The Swinging Mr. Rogers'' earlier the same year. These albums incorporated some of his more avant-garde music. To some extent they could be classified as "cool" jazz; but they also looked back to the "hot" style of

Count Basie William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and the ...

, whom Rogers always credited as a major inspiration. In 1957, Rogers composed the music for the Friz Freleng cartoon '' Three Little Bops'', notably the first Warner Bros. cartoon short not to have music by either Carl Stalling or Milt Franklyn, and scored the music for the

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

film '' Tarzan, the Ape Man'' two years later. His other film work included the scores to '' Fools'' (1970), '' The Teacher'' (1974), ''

The Specialist ''The Specialist'' is a 1994 American action thriller film directed by Luis Llosa and starring Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone, James Woods, Eric Roberts, and Rod Steiger. It is loosely based on "The Specialist" series of novels by John ...

'' (1975), '' Dr. Minx'' (1975) and '' The Return of the Mod Squad'' (1979). Rogers died of

melanoma Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer; it develops from the melanin-producing cells known as melanocytes. It typically occurs in the skin, but may rarely occur in the mouth, intestines, or eye (uveal melanoma). In very rare case ...

on November 7, 1994, in Van Nuys, California, at the age of 70.

Discography

As leader

* '' Modern Sounds'' ( Capitol, 1951 955 * '' Popo'' ( Xanadu, 1951

980 Year 980 ( CMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Peace is concluded between Emperor Otto II (the Red) and King Lothair III (or Lothair IV) at Margut, ending the Franco-Germa ...

* '' Shorty Rogers and His Giants'' ( RCA Victor, 1953) * '' Cool and Crazy'' (RCA Victor, 1953) * ''The Wild One'' -song 45rpm 7" vinyl EP(RCA Victor EPA-535, 1953) * '' Shorty Rogers Courts the Count'' (RCA Victor, 1954) * '' Bud Shank – Shorty Rogers – Bill Perkins'' ( Pacific Jazz, 1955) * ''

Collaboration Collaboration (from Latin ''com-'' "with" + ''laborare'' "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. The ...

'' (RCA Victor, 1955) * '' The Swinging Mr. Rogers'' (

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

, 1955) * '' Martians Stay Home'' (Atlantic, 1955

* '' Martians Come Back!'' (Atlantic, 1955) * '' Way Up There'' (Atlantic, 1955 957 * ''Clickin' with Clax'' (Atlantic, 1956 978 * '' Wherever the Five Winds Blow'' (RCA Victor, 1956) * ''The Big Shorty Rogers Express'' (RCA Victor, 1956) - reissue of ''Cool And Crazy'' with 4 tracks added on * '' Shorty Rogers Plays Richard Rodgers'' (RCA Victor, 1957) * '' Portrait of Shorty'' (RCA Victor, 1957) * '' Gigi in Jazz'' (RCA Victor, 1958) * '' Afro-Cuban Influence'' (RCA Victor, 1958) * '' Chances Are It Swings'' (RCA Victor, 1958) * '' The Wizard of Oz and Other Harold Arlen Songs'' (RCA Victor, 1959) * '' Shorty Rogers Meets Tarzan'' (

, 1960) * '' The Swingin' Nutcracker'' (RCA Victor, 1960) * '' An Invisible Orchard'' (RCA Victor, 1961 997 * '' The Fourth Dimension in Sound'' ( Warner Bros., 1962) * '' Bossa Nova'' (

Reprise In music, a reprise ( , ; from the verb 'to resume') is the repetition or reiteration of the opening material later in a composition as occurs in the recapitulation of sonata form, though—originally in the 18th century—was simply any re ...

, 1962) * '' Jazz Waltz'' (Reprise, 1962) * '' Mavis Meets Shorty'' (Reprise, 1962) * '' Gospel Mission'' (Capitol, 1963) * ''Re-Entry'' (

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of world map, maps of Earth or of a continent or region of Earth. Advances in astronomy have also resulted in atlases of the celestial sphere or of other planets. Atlases have traditio ...

, 1983) * '' Yesterday, Today and Forever'' ( Concord Jazz, 1983) * ''Back Again'' (Choice, 1984) * '' California Concert'' ( Contemporary, 1985) * ''America the Beautiful'' ( Candid, 1991) * ''Eight Brothers'' (Candid, 1992)

As sideman

With Elmer Bernstein * '' The Man with the Golden Arm'' ( Decca, 1956) With Teddy Charles * '' Collaboration West'' (

Prestige Prestige may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Films *Prestige (film), ''Prestige'' (film), a 1932 American film directed by Tay Garnett: woman travels to French Indochina to meet up with husband *The Prestige (film), ''The Prestige'' (fi ...

, 1953) * ''

Evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

'' (Prestige, 1957) With

Jimmy Giuffre James Peter Giuffre (, ; April 26, 1921 – April 24, 2008) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, composer, and arranger. He is known for developing forms of jazz which allowed for free interplay between the musicians, anticipating f ...

* ''

'' (Capitol, 1955) * '' The Jimmy Giuffre Clarinet'' (Atlantic, 1956) With

* '' Innovations in Modern Music'' (Capitol, 1950) * '' Stan Kenton Presents'' (Capitol, 1950) * '' Popular Favorites by Stan Kenton'' (Capitol, 1953) * '' The Kenton Era'' (Capitol, 1940–1954 955 * '' The Innovations Orchestra'' (Capitol, 1950–1951 997 With Eartha Kitt * ''St. Louis Blues'' (RCA Victor, 1958) With Perez Prado * ''Voodoo Suite'' (RCA Victor, 1955) With Pete Rugolo * '' Introducing Pete Rugolo'' ( Columbia, 1954) * '' Adventures in Rhythm'' (Columbia, 1954) * '' Rugolomania'' (Columbia, 1955) * '' New Sounds by Pete Rugolo'' (

Harmony In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...

, 1954–1955 957

As arranger

With

Herb Alpert Herb Alpert (born March 31, 1935) is an American trumpeter, pianist, singer, songwriter, record producer, arranger, conductor, painter, sculptor and theatre producer, who led the band Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass (sometimes called "Herb Alpe ...

& the Tijuana Brass *'' Christmas Album'' (A&M, 1968) *'' Warm'' (A&M, 1969) With Ernie Andrews *''Soul Proprietor'' (Dot, 1968) With

Chet Baker Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker Jr. (December 23, 1929 – May 13, 1988) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist. He is known for major innovations in cool jazz that led him to be nicknamed the "Prince of Cool". Baker earned much attention and ...

*'' Chet Baker & Strings'' (Columbia, 1954) With Elmer Bernstein *'' Baby the Rain Must Fall'' (Mainstream, 1965) With Les Brown and His Band of Renown *''The Young Beat'' (Capitol, 1963) With Bobby Bryant *''The Jazz Excursion Into "Hair"'' (Pacific Jazz, 1969) With

Bobby Darin Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Cassotto; May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor who performed Pop music, pop, Swing music, swing, Folk music, folk, rock and roll, and country music. Darin started ...

*'' You're the Reason I'm Living'' (Capitol, 1963) *'' Bobby Darin Sings The Shadow of Your Smile'' (Atlantic, 1966) With Frances Faye *''You Gotta Go! Go! Go!'' (Regina, 1964) With Bobbie Gentry *'' Ode to Billie Joe'' (Capitol, 1967) *'' Local Gentry'' (Capitol, 1968) *'' The Delta Sweete'' (Capitol, 1968) With Terry Gibbs *'' Reza'' (Dot, 1966) With

Jerry Goldsmith Jerrald King Goldsmith (February 10, 1929July 21, 2004) was an American composer, conductor and orchestrator with a career in film and television scoring that spanned nearly 50 years and over 200 productions, between 1954 and 2003. He was consid ...

*''

Stagecoach A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...

'' (Mainstream, 1966) With Vince Guaraldi *'' Alma-Ville'' ( Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, 1969) With

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

*'' Lena Like Latin'' (CRC Charter, 1963) With Helen Humes *''Midsummer Night's Songs'' (RCA, 1974) with Red Norvo and His Orchestra With Dean Jones *''Introducing Dean Jones'' (Valiant, 1963) with

Frankie Laine Frankie Laine (born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio; March 30, 1913 – February 6, 2007) was an American singer and songwriter whose career spanned nearly 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performa ...

*''You Gave Me a Mountain'' (ABC, 1969) With

Peggy Lee Norma Deloris Egstrom (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, and actress whose career spanned seven decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local r ...

*'' In Love Again!'' (Capitol, 1964) *'' Pass Me By'' (Capitol, 1965) With Harvey Mandel * ''Righteous'' (Philips, 1969) * ''Baby Batter'' (Janus, 1971) With Shelly Manne *'' The West Coast Sound'' (Contemporary, 1955) *'' My Son the Jazz Drummer!'' (Contemporary, 1962) With Carmen McRae *'' The Sound of Silence'' (Atlantic, 1968) *'' Portrait of Carmen'' (Atlantic, 1968) With

The Monkees The Monkees were an American pop rock band formed in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s. The band consisted of Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones (musician), Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork. Spurred by the success of ''The Monkees (TV series), Th ...

*" Daydream Believer"/" Goin' Down" (Colgems, 1967) *" D. W. Washburn"/"It's Nice to Be with You" (Colgems, 1968) *'' The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees'' (Colgems, 1968) *'' The Monkees Present'' (Colgems, 1969) With Michael Nesmith *'' The Wichita Train Whistle Sings'' (Dot, 1968) With Jack Nitzsche * ''Heart Beat'' (Soundtrack) (Capitol, 1980) With Buddy Rich *'' Big Swing Face'', Pacific Jazz, 1967) *'' Buddy & Soul'' (World Pacific, 1969) With Bud Shank *'' A Spoonful of Jazz'' (World Pacific, 1967) With

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

*'' Comin' Home Baby!'' (Atlantic, 1962)

References

External links

Shorty Rogers biography

Alphabet Conspiracy
- Shorty makes a brief appearance in this 1959 educational film. * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rogers, Shorty 1924 births 1994 deaths 20th-century American Jews 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century American trumpeters American jazz trumpeters American male jazz musicians American male trumpeters American music arrangers Atlantic Records artists American jazz bandleaders American big band bandleaders Burials at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery Cool jazz trumpeters Deaths from melanoma in California Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School alumni Fresh Sounds Records artists Jazz musicians from Massachusetts Jazz musicians from New York (state) Jewish American musicians Jewish jazz musicians People from Great Barrington, Massachusetts RCA Victor artists Reprise Records artists Warner Records artists