Nadia s theme ray conniff biography
Born on November 6, , in Attleboro, MA; died on October 12, , in Escondido, CA; son of John Lawrence and Maude (Angela) Conniff; married Emily Jo Ann Imhof, February 14, ; marriage ended; married Ann Marie Engberg, August 23, ; marriage ended; married Vera Schmidheiny, August 2, ; children: (with Imhof) James Lawrence, Jo Ann Patricia; (with Engberg) a foster son, Richard J.
Bibo; (with Schmidheiny) Tamara Allegra.
For some reason it can most easily be found by searching for the Spanish title, "La Tema de Nadia" - perhaps it only appeared on albums of his marketed in Latin America? The label also re-released the soundtrack LP, now stickered to say it contained "Nadia's Theme", although it still only contained the cover version. His holiday fare, We Wish You a Merry Christmas , appeared on the chart for six Christmas seasons and went platinum in Between and Conniff released 13 gold-certified records, including three that earned platinum certification.Education: Attended the Juilliard School of Music; studied with Tom Timothy, Sol Crosby, Hugo Friedhofer. Addresses: Business--P.O. Box , Los Angeles, CA Record company--Abril Music, website:
Conductor and composer Ray Conniff is sometimes hailed disparagingly as the godfather of Muzak. Yet as an arranger at Columbia Records during the s, he charted repeatedly with the instrumental and vocal arrangements that he prepared for other artists.
With a natural appreciation for varied musical styles he assembled an orchestra of his own and capitalized on his talent for melody and harmony, recording more than albums beginning in and into the s. Among these recordings are a series of albums with his Grammy-winning choral group, the Ray Conniff Singers.
American bandleader — During the late s, inspired by advancements in audio technology, Conniff toured the United States and Europe, presenting a series of live concerts in three-channel stereo sound, an unprecedented accomplishment at that time. Christmas with Conniff , Columbia, Conductor and composer Ray Conniff is sometimes hailed disparagingly as the godfather of Muzak.Conniff is credited as the first arranger to use voices to double as instruments on his recordings, and in the mids was the first to stage a live concert using three-channel stereo feeds. Between and Conniff released 13 gold-certified records, including three that earned platinum certification.
Conniff was born on November 6, , in Attleboro, Massachusetts, the son of John Lawrence, a trombonist, and Maude (Angela) Conniff, a pianist.
Conniff's father led the Jewelry City Band in Attleboro and taught his son to play the trombone. By his junior year of high school, Ray Conniff and a group of schoolmates had formed a dance orchestra. After arranging musical numbers for the ensemble, he took his first job out of high school as a musician, arranger, and gofer for the Musical Skippers, a Boston-based group led by Dan Murphy.
The job offered only low-profile exposure, but success tapped Conniff squarely on the shoulder after he relocated to New York City in the mids. There he studied at the Juilliard School of Music and under the guidance of Tom Timothy, Sol Kaplan, and Hugo Friedhofer.
After sitting in on impromptu gigs in the New York clubs, Conniff spent 15 months performing and arranging with Bunny Berigan beginning in his first paid work as a professional musician.
Conniff next worked with Bob Crosby's band from and quickly developed a solid reputation among the big band leaders. By Conniff found himself working for Artie Shaw and soon afterward for Glen Gray.
Nadia s theme ray conniff biography The Young and the Restless. December 14, Article Talk. No mention is made of the Ray Conniff version.Even as an Army recruit during World War II, Conniff's talent was recognized, and he remained stateside, stationed at the Armed Forces Radio Services in Hollywood, California. While in the military Conniff worked with the Harry James Orchestra; he hooked up with James again later as a civilian in
With the advent of bebop in the late s and early s, Conniff withdrew into a self-imposed exile from the popular music scene and all but disappeared as a musical presence.
Although he never abandoned his musical career, he spent time in introspection, dissecting pop music and putting together his own theories of rhythm and rhyme. He received a jump-start into the recording industry in by taking a job with Columbia Records through the backing of the popular producer and bandleader Mitch Miller. It was this involvement at Columbia Records that initially set into motion Conniff's commercial career, which spanned the second half of the twentieth century and showed no sign of stopping into the early s.
As an arranger for Columbia, Conniff produced his first top-five chart hit within a year of joining that label.
The record, "Band of Gold," featured vocalist Don Cherry and served as a prelude to more Conniff hits, including his arrangements for Guy Mitchell ("Singing the Blues") and Johnny Mathis ("Chances Are"), both of which charted at number one. Conniff is credited with arranging other of Mathis' hits as well, including "Wonderful, Wonderful," and "It's Not for Me to Say." Additionally, Conniff put singer Johnny Ray into a top-five hit with "Just Walking in the Rain," and Frankie Laine and Marty Robbins charted near the top with Conniff's arrangements of "Midnight Gambler" and "A White Sport Coat," respectively.
Conniff's ingenuity as an arranger extended to his knack for using female voices to cover clarinets, high saxophones, and trumpets, and likewise employing male voices to double as trombones and lower saxophones.
While at Columbia, Conniff recorded a personal debut album in , 's Wonderful, conducting an instrumental group billed as Ray Conniff and His Orchestra. The album enjoyed a nine-month sojourn among the top 20 albums on the pop chart, and at its peak the album broke into the top ten. 's Wonderful was certified gold in July of along with a subsequent release, Concert in Rhythm, which appeared in A succession of theme albums carried Conniff for half a decade, beginning with Say It with Music in His holiday fare, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, appeared on the chart for six Christmas seasons and went platinum in
Beginning in the late s, Conniff adapted to the changing times and successfully accommodated the rising popularity of rock music without sacrificing his style.
Instead he found fresh material in arranging selections from the softer rock material that became available.
He brought his chorus to increasing prominence with his trademark sound, crediting the Ray Conniff Singers on several albums. In they recorded a piece called "Lara's Theme" for the Dr. Zhivago soundtrack; the track became a hit single, peaking at number nine on the popular music charts and spawning a platinum-selling album, Somewhere My Love.
The popular "Lara's Theme" earned the Ray Conniff Singers a Grammy Award in for Best Performance by a Chorus.
Ray conniff singers Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata Articles needing additional references from April All articles needing additional references Wikipedia external links cleanup from March Articles with multiple maintenance issues All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from August All articles with failed verification Articles with failed verification from April It was originally part of the soundtrack music of the Stanley Kramer film Bless the Beasts and Children , and became better known as the theme music to the television soap opera The Young and the Restless since the series premiered in The album reached the US top 20 and went platinum, and Conniff won a Grammy. Contents move to sidebar hide.The group received a second Grammy nomination in for "Honey," and a third in for Conniff's version of the Rod McKuen song "Jean," which served as the title track for one of his albums that year.
During the late s, inspired by advancements in audio technology, Conniff toured the United States and Europe, presenting a series of live concerts in three-channel stereo sound, an unprecedented accomplishment at that time.
Selected concerts were televised; a live recording was released in As the s unfolded, Conniff toured the world, including South America, Japan, and England, and went on to become the first Western artist to make a recording in Soviet Moscow. By the end of the decade Conniff's music had migrated into a Latin sound, a decision that insured his ongoing popularity into the s.
By , according to the Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Conniff had placed 37 albums in Billboard's Top chart. His enchantment with Latin music continued for a decade longer, and he signed with Abril Music of Brazil in , touring annually through Brazil, and releasing his one-hundredth album, I Love Movies, that same year.
Conniff released albums consistently in the late s--averaging at least one every year--and even into the s.
Conniff married his third wife, Vera Schmidheiny, on August 2, , and they had a daughter, Tamara Allegra.
Item 1 of 3: Among these recordings are a series of albums with his Grammy-winning choral group, the Ray Conniff Singers. We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Original albums [ edit ]. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references.
He has two children, James Lawrence and Jo Ann Patricia, from his first marriage to Emily Jo Ann Imhof in the s. Additionally, Conniff has one foster son, Richard J. Bibo, from his marriage to Ann Marie Engberg in the s.
Conniff died on October 12, , in Escondido, California, after falling down and hitting his head. He was
by Gloria Cooksey
Ray Conniff's Career
Trombone player with Bunny Berigan, ; with Bob Crosby, ; with Artie Shaw, ; arranger, Armed Forces Radio during World War II; with Harry James Orchestra, ; recorded with Bobby Hackett, ; recorded with Art Hodes, ; arranger, composer, conductor for Columbia Records, ; formed the Ray Conniff Singers, ; world tours; began recording with Abril Music,
Ray Conniff's Awards
Cash Box magazine's up-and-coming Bandleader of the Year, ; Grammy Award (with Ray Conniff Singers), Best Performance by a Chorus,
Famous Works
- Selected discography
- 's Marvelous , Columbia,
- 's Wonderful , Columbia,
- 's Awful Nice , Columbia,
- Concert in Rhythm , Vol.
1 (live), Columbia,
- Christmas with Conniff , Columbia,
- Concert in Rhythm , Vol. 2 (live), Columbia,
- Christmas Album , Columbia,
- Rhapsody in Rhythm , Columbia,
- 's Continental , Columbia,
- We Wish You a Merry Christmas , Columbia,
- Friendly Persuasion , Columbia,
- Love Affair , Columbia,
- Happiness Is , Columbia,
- Somewhere, My Love , Columbia,
- En Espanol! , Columbia,
- Merry Christmas to All , Columbia,
- Ray Conniff's Hawaiian Album , Columbia,
- This Is My Song , Columbia,
- Honey , Columbia,
- It Must Be Him , Columbia,
- Turn Around Look at Me , Columbia,
- I Love How You Love Me , Columbia,
- Jean , Columbia,
- Bridge Over Troubled Water , Columbia,
- Concert in Stereo/Live at the Sahara/Tahoe , Columbia,
- We've Only Just Begun , Columbia,
- Love Story , Columbia,
- Alone Again (Naturally) , Columbia,
- I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing , Columbia,
- The Way We Were , Columbia,
- Ray Conniff Interpreta 16 Exitos de Manuel , Sony,
- Exclusivamente Latino , Sony,
- Amor, Amor, Amor , Sony,
- Campeones , Discos CBS,
- Supersonico , Sony,
- Siempre Latino , Sony,
- Wonderful , Sony,
- 's Always Conniff (live), Columbia,
- Latinisimo , Sony,
- Personalidad , Sony,
- I Love Movies , T.H.
Rodven,
- Live in Rio , Polydor,
- Cancion de Amor , Saludos Amigos,
- Tico Tico , Saludos Amigos,
- 's Christmas , Abril,
- 's Country , Abril,
- Do rey para o Rei , Abril,
- Ray Conniff in Moscow , Boheme,
- Turn Around Look at Me/I Love How You Love Me , Collectables,
Further Reading
Sources
Books- Clarke, Donald, editor, Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Viking,
- Los Angeles Times, October 15, , p.
B
- "Ray Conniff," All Music Guide, (February 10, ).
- "Ray Conniff," Space Age Pop Music, (April 8, ).
- "The Ray Conniff Page," (April 8, ).
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