Biography
Among the foremost arrangers of the big-band period, Bill Finegan created signature works for Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey before joining forces with Eddie Sauter, another master arranger, to launch the innovative Sauter-Finegan Orchestra. Finegan entered the world in Newark, NJ, on April 3, 1917; during his teenage years he took up trumpet and traveled with a prize-winning high-school jazz ensemble. Dorsey responded so strongly to Finegan’s chart for “Lonesome Road” that he steered him toward Miller, who brought him into the band in 1938. Finegan joined just as the orchestra returned to New York City and Miller resolved to reshape its sound, directing new lead clarinetist Wilbur Schwartz to carry the melody while tenor saxophonist Tex Beneke doubled the same pitch and three additional saxophones supplied harmonic texture. Finegan played a decisive role in helping Miller realize this novel, densely textured style; in September 1938 he scored the band’s breakthrough RCA Victor release, “Little Brown Jug.” Virtually every Miller recording made over the following eighteen months carried Finegan’s imprint, and Miller’s growing trust eventually granted him complete freedom to choose and shape material.
Drafted into the U.S. Army in 1940, Finegan later attached himself to Dorsey after Miller perished in a December 1944 plane crash, staying until the Dorsey orchestra disbanded at the close of 1946. Finegan devoted much of the next two years to study with avant-garde composer Stefan Wolpe, then moved to Europe in late 1948 to enroll at the Paris Conservatory. While abroad he began an exchange with Sauter, whose charts for Benny Goodman included such enduring pieces as “Benny Rides Again” and “Clarinet a la King.” Their shared dismay over the artistic slump afflicting big bands gradually shifted into plans for a new ensemble; in 1952 the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra signed with RCA. Recruiting elite players that included Ralph Burns and Kai Winding, the pair pursued an idiosyncratic sound built on forward-looking charts and unusual instrumentation. In a statement sent to leading jazz publications they vowed to deliver “pop music that is danceable, listenable, and lookable,” rejecting the “too convenient rationalization to dub the public as moronic.” Even while pursuing this experimental path, Sauter and Finegan remained anchored in musical tradition, particularly classical models, and their book drew heavily on symphonic works and American folk material.
At peak strength the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra fielded as many as 21 musicians and 77 instruments, among them piccolo, flute, oboe, bass clarinet, harp, English horn, recorder, tuba, glockenspiel, timpani, kazoo, and xylophone. For the celebrated recording of Prokofiev’s Troika, Finegan simulated horses’ hooves by drumming the rhythm on his own chest. Multi-instrumentalist Wally Kane later told The New York Times that the leaders ignored conventional chair rankings and instead featured every player equally, tailoring each arrangement to specific musicians. After the hit “Doodletown Fifers,” RCA urged the pair to tour; their first road trip began in late 1953. With the big-band era sliding into irreversible commercial eclipse, the venture proved financially ruinous and left both men heavily indebted. By the late 1950s the orchestra had to disband; Sauter found work as an arranger for German radio while Finegan took freelance assignments, including a stint with a later edition of the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Although Sauter passed away in 1981, Finegan and Kane reassembled a Sauter-Finegan Orchestra for a 1987 Town Hall concert in New York City. Finegan succumbed to pneumonia on June 4, 2008, in Bridgeport, CT.
Drafted into the U.S. Army in 1940, Finegan later attached himself to Dorsey after Miller perished in a December 1944 plane crash, staying until the Dorsey orchestra disbanded at the close of 1946. Finegan devoted much of the next two years to study with avant-garde composer Stefan Wolpe, then moved to Europe in late 1948 to enroll at the Paris Conservatory. While abroad he began an exchange with Sauter, whose charts for Benny Goodman included such enduring pieces as “Benny Rides Again” and “Clarinet a la King.” Their shared dismay over the artistic slump afflicting big bands gradually shifted into plans for a new ensemble; in 1952 the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra signed with RCA. Recruiting elite players that included Ralph Burns and Kai Winding, the pair pursued an idiosyncratic sound built on forward-looking charts and unusual instrumentation. In a statement sent to leading jazz publications they vowed to deliver “pop music that is danceable, listenable, and lookable,” rejecting the “too convenient rationalization to dub the public as moronic.” Even while pursuing this experimental path, Sauter and Finegan remained anchored in musical tradition, particularly classical models, and their book drew heavily on symphonic works and American folk material.
At peak strength the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra fielded as many as 21 musicians and 77 instruments, among them piccolo, flute, oboe, bass clarinet, harp, English horn, recorder, tuba, glockenspiel, timpani, kazoo, and xylophone. For the celebrated recording of Prokofiev’s Troika, Finegan simulated horses’ hooves by drumming the rhythm on his own chest. Multi-instrumentalist Wally Kane later told The New York Times that the leaders ignored conventional chair rankings and instead featured every player equally, tailoring each arrangement to specific musicians. After the hit “Doodletown Fifers,” RCA urged the pair to tour; their first road trip began in late 1953. With the big-band era sliding into irreversible commercial eclipse, the venture proved financially ruinous and left both men heavily indebted. By the late 1950s the orchestra had to disband; Sauter found work as an arranger for German radio while Finegan took freelance assignments, including a stint with a later edition of the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Although Sauter passed away in 1981, Finegan and Kane reassembled a Sauter-Finegan Orchestra for a 1987 Town Hall concert in New York City. Finegan succumbed to pneumonia on June 4, 2008, in Bridgeport, CT.