Hal Mooney

about

* Born 4 February 1911, Brooklyn, New York * Died 23 March 1995, Los Angeles, California Hal MooneyHal Mooney was one of what Billy May called the "nuts and bolts" arrangers, producing professional, sometimes imaginative, sometimes predictable recordings. Although Mooney studied and played the piano while growing up, his real interest was in composing. He studied composition with New York University professor Orville Mayhood and, later, the renown Joseph Schillinger, whose method of composition influenced countless American musicians. His first professional gigs, though, were as a pianist. Bandleader Hal Kemp first spotted Mooney's talent with the pen, and Mooney, Lou Busch, and John Scott Trotter became the core of Kemp's arranging team. He switched bands, joining Jimmy Dorsey's orchestra just before the start of World War Two, but had to put his civilian career on hold to serve in the U.S. Army. After the war, he settled in Hollywood, where he managed to make his way as a free-lancer at a time when most musicians were tied to studio contracts. Mooney's arrangements never garnered the kind of attention Nelson Riddle's did, but they were good enough in the eyes of the record companies. In the twenty-plus years before he joined the staff of Universal Studios, he arranged and conducted ensembles behind most of the big-name singers of the time: Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Peggy Lee, Patti Page, Kay Starr, Billy Eckstine, and many others. He joined Mercury

top songs

albums

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High Priestess of Soul

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Colour Collection

Flutes and Percussion

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Feeling Good

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My Baby Just Cares For Me (Jazz Club)

Music in the Mooney Manner - Four Original Albums

The Passion of Paris

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Four Women: The Complete Nina Simone On Philips

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101 Big Bands Swing

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Wild Is The Wind / High Priestess Of Soul

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The Soul Of Jazz (Jazz Club)

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Compact Jazz - Nina Simone

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