Marty Paich

Marty Paich earned recognition as one of the foremost arrangers in the decades following World War II, distinguished from many contemporaries by deeper jazz roots forged through steady participation in the West Coast scene across the 1950s. Born in Oakland, California, on January 23, 1925, he began his career as a pianist and turned professional by age 16. With the emerging Pete Rugolo he supplied charts for Oakland bandleader Gary Nottingham. Drafted in 1943, he kept arranging during his tenure leading the Army Air Corps band until 1946. After discharge he applied G.I. Bill benefits toward further study, enrolling at UCLA for arranging lessons with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, the same instructor who guided Nelson Riddle. He completed a master’s degree at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music in 1951 and promptly secured studio work both writing and playing for Jerry Gray and Dan Terry.

Larger assignments soon followed. Between 1953 and 1954 he performed and arranged for Shelly Manne and for Shorty Rogers on the big-band release Cool and Crazy, while also serving as Peggy Lee’s accompanist and musical director. He simultaneously directed his own ensembles and, beginning in 1955, recorded for Mode, Tampa, Candid on The Picasso of Big Band Jazz, Warner on I Get a Boot Out of You, and RCA Victor. Additional projects included a tour with Dorothy Dandridge and contributions as both arranger and pianist to the 1955 Disney soundtrack Lady and the Tramp. Throughout the middle and late 1950s he supplied charts for an array of West Coast figures that included Chet Baker, Buddy Rich, Ray Brown, Dave Pell, and Stan Kenton. His most celebrated partnership developed with Mel Tormé, whom he regularly supported with a ten-piece unit called the Dek-tette; the collaboration yielded the landmark album Mel Tormé and the Marty Paich Dek-tette, also issued as Lulu’s Back in Town, along with further acclaimed sessions extending through 1960. He likewise furnished the arrangements for altoist Art Pepper’s 1959 classic Art Pepper + Eleven: Modern Jazz Classics. In both the Tormé and Pepper projects Paich demonstrated particular skill at expanding the sonic weight of modest ensembles to orchestral dimensions.

By the end of the decade Paich had already extended his reach beyond strictly West Coast circles, writing for Ella Fitzgerald, Anita O’Day, and big-band leader Terry Gibbs. Around 1960 he stepped back from leading his own dates to concentrate on arrangements for pop and occasional jazz singers. Across that decade his clients encompassed Ray Charles, Lena Horne, Helen Humes, Al Hirt, Andy Williams, Sammy Davis, Jr., Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Astrud Gilberto, and Mahalia Jackson, among many others. He also scored animated Hanna-Barbera features and various television programs, earning an Emmy for his work on Ironside. In the late 1960s he served as musical director for The Glen Campbell Good-Time Hour, succeeded Nelson Riddle on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and later held the same post on The Sonny and Cher Show.

Paich’s schedule diminished after the early 1970s, yet he continued occasional work as orchestra conductor and string arranger on film soundtracks and for George Benson, Carly Simon, Elton John, and Kenny Loggins, including a Grammy-nominated chart for “Only a Miracle,” as well as projects for his son David Paich’s band Toto. In 1980 he directed Sarah Vaughan’s Songs of the Beatles. The late 1980s brought a reunion with a resurgent Tormé that revived the Dek-tette for a series of well-received recordings and concerts. He maintained soundtrack involvement into the 1990s, often as conductor and musical supervisor, until colon cancer ended his life on August 12, 1995.