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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZALBAM, Manny(b Emmanuel Albam, 24 June 1922, Dominican Republic; d 2 October 2001, Croton NY) Composer/arranger, sax. To USA as an infant. Played alto and baritone NYC from '40; wrote for many bands in that decade including Muggsy Spanier, Boyd Raeburn, Bobby Sherwood, San Donahue, Charlie Barnet. From 1950 a fluent, successful Swing Era-based freelance arranger. The Jazz Workshop '55 and Drum Suite '56 on RCA were typical of his best work; the first had an octet on each track, two each of trumpets, trombones and reeds, plus Osie Johnson on drums and Milt Hinton on bass, no piano: the band sounds bigger because the arrangements are so rich. He wrote half the arrangements on Drum Suite (the rest by Ernie Wilkins); the band included Al Cohn, Joe Newman, Conte Candoli, other excellent sidemen; drummers Osie Johnson, Gus Johnson, Don Lamond (b 18 August 1920, OK), Ted Sommer (b 16 June 1924, NYC) providing tasteful punctuation: they traded fours and eights, just like any other soloists, for a lot of beautiful swing. He did much TV and film work; visited the UK, recorded with Tubby Hayes; many albums as leader now out of print on Dot, Solid State, Coral (The Jazz Greats Of Our Time, two volumes of original compositions with all-star sidemen; West Side Story, Sophisticated Lady '57-8). He wrote and recorded with Curtis Fuller, Stan Getz, Coleman Hawkins ('La Vie En Rose' '56), Gerry Mulligan, Buddy Rich, Clark Terry; wrote 'Afro-Dizzyac' for Dizzy Gillespie, 'Country Man' for Dakota Staton, etc. He taught at Eastman School of Music in the 1970s. |