Biography
Formed well after the Swing Era had drawn to a close, the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra nevertheless ranked among the more singular ensembles tied to that musical period. Its two leaders, Edward Ernest (Eddie) Sauter (b. Dec 2, 1914, in New York [Brooklyn], NY; d. Apr 21, 1981, in West Nyack, NY) and William J. (Bill) Finegan (b. Apr 3, 1917, in Newark, NJ), had each already established reputations as leading big band arrangers. Sauter, whose instrumental work included mellophone, trumpet, and drums, attended Columbia University and the Juilliard School of Music. Across the 1930s and 1940s he performed, supplied arrangements, and contributed original pieces to groups fronted by Archie Bleyer, Charlie Barnet, Red Norvo, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman, and Ray McKinley. Finegan, during the same span, prepared charts for Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Horace Heidt, and Les Elgart. Once the Swing Era waned, Finegan enrolled at the Paris Conservatory in the late 1940s and early 1950s, while exchanging letters with Sauter, then recuperating from tuberculosis at a sanatorium. The pair resolved to pool their efforts on scores that would explore every creative possibility, free of commercial constraints. This approach led them to incorporate such instruments as piccolo, flute, oboe, bass clarinet, harp, English horn, recorder, tuba, glockenspiel, tympani, and kazoo; Finegan even struck his own chest to suggest the sound of horses’ hooves on “Midnight Sleighride.” Although some listeners praised the resulting inventiveness, others heard echoes of musical humorist Spike Jones, and certain jazz enthusiasts objected that the dense scoring left scant space for improvisation. The arrangers initially envisioned a studio-only project and placed the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra under contract with RCA Victor. The label issued the first single, “Doodletown Fifers” (an adaptation of the Civil War song “Kingdom Coming and the Year of Jubilo”), which entered the charts in August 1952. “Nina Never Knew,” featuring vocalist Joe Mooney, followed suit in December, and the movie theme “The Moon Is Blue,” sung by Sally Sweetland, charted in August 1953. That same year the band issued its debut 10" LP, provocatively named New Directions in Music; an expanded 12" version appeared in 1956. Strong sales prompted promoters to urge the leaders to assemble a permanent touring unit, and the 21-piece Sauter-Finegan Orchestra took to the road in June 1953. Yet the promoters booked the group primarily into dance halls rather than concert venues better suited to its style, and the dance-band field itself had grown nearly dormant by the mid-1950s. The ensemble remained on tour until December 1955, leaving the leaders heavily indebted. They continued recording for RCA Victor, releasing Inside Sauter-Finegan and The Sound of the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra in 1954, as well as Concerto for Jazz Band and Orchestra, a collaboration with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Fritz Reiner. Concert Jazz and Sons of Sauter-Finegan followed in 1955. After leaving the road the band produced three further albums—Adventure in Time (1956), Under Analysis (1957), and Straight Down the Middle (1957)—before disbanding in March 1957 when Sauter accepted the post of musical director for the South-West Radio Big Band in Baden-Baden, West Germany. Finegan resumed freelance arranging; upon Sauter’s return to the United States in 1959 the two resumed their partnership, re-recording selected scores for the United Artists LP The Return of the Doodletown Fifers and creating radio and television jingles. They never reconstituted the orchestra as a full-time venture. Finegan persisted with commercial work and teaching, and during the 1970s he again supplied charts for the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Sauter prepared arrangements for Andre Kostelanetz, orchestrated the Broadway productions The Apple Tree (1966), 1776 (1969), and Two by Two (1970), composed and arranged the entire 1962 Stan Getz album Focus (which earned a Grammy nomination), and wrote the score for the 1965 film Mickey One. He died of a heart attack at age 66 in 1981. In the mid-1980s Finegan assembled a new edition of the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra for a concert at New York’s Town Hall.
Albums
