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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 ZMcKUSICK, Hal(b 1 June 1924, Medford, MA; d 10 April 2012, Long Island) Reeds, composer, arranger. Worked for Les Brown, Woody Herman, several others including the innovative and influential bands of Boyd Raeburn '44-5 and Claude Thornhill '48-9. In the '50s he played in the Elliot Lawrence band for several years but also worked and/or recorded with Don Elliott, Terry Gibbs, Mal Waldron, Al Cohn, Manny Albam, George Russell, Bobby Scott and others, as well as making his own small-group LPs for Jubilee, Bethlehem, RCA Victor, Coral, Prestige and Decca, all in '55-8. He also played on the lovely album Lee Konitz Meets Jimmy Giuffre '59 on Verve. McKusick was one of those like Gil Evans, George Russell and John Carisi who explored the dichotomy between composing and improvising, discovering beauty in the tension by providing valuable opportunities for soloists. But there was no security in what he was doing; the pull of lucrative studio and advertising work became too strong (he made an album for Liberty called Jingles All The Way). His work had been out of print for years until the CD era; then there were East Coast Jazz on Fresh Sound (from Bethlehem), Triple Exposure on OJC (from Prestige), Now's The Time (1957-58) on GRP (compiled from Decca and Coral), and five tracks on The RCA Victor Jazz Workshop -- The Arrangers on Bluebird, arranged by Evans or Russell, the CD shared with Carisi and Rod Levitt (Carisi's tracks had never been issued before at all; trombonist/ arranger Levitt d 8 May 2007, Wardsboro VT aged 77.) The GRP compilation is particularly delightful, with such sidemen as Art Farmer, Paul Chambers, Bill Evans and others; it includes George Handy's 'The Last Day Of Fall' and Clifford Brown's 'LaRue', both arranged by pianist Handy, McKusick's collaborator in the Raeburn band, another first-rate arranger lost to us when the USA turned its back on jazz. |