Gil Mellé

In the 1950s he did some memorable modern jazz albums, playing baritone sax for the then-new Blue Note Records label and later Prestige Records. He also served as a musical talent spotter for Blue Note and as the artist on several historic album covers of other jazz musicians.

A recording artist, song writer, jazz musician and composer, Gil Melle launched his career in the sixties. He first displayed his talent for art work and was also a regular jazz performer in Greenwich Village in Manhattan. After relocating to Los Angeles in 1969, Gil Melle displayed his musical talent for NBC's series "Night Gallery" and then composed scores for four of the "Columbo Mystery Films" for ABC and later did the chilling score for television's "Kolchak: The Night Stalker". He also worked with major filmmakers including a young Steven Spielberg, for whom Melle scored his first two films "The Psychiatrist" and "Savage". With Larry Cohen, he composed a thundering score for "Bone" and next did the Sidney Poitier suspense thriller "The Organization" and ABC's motion picture "The Six Million Dollar Man".

After leaving television, Melle displayed his talents again for such major motion pictures including "The Manipulator", Warner Brothers' "The Ultimate Warrior" and Melle's best-known score for Universal Pictures, the 1971 science fiction thriller "The Andromeda Strain". Upon returning to television in the early eighties, he did NBC's "The Intruder Within" and later "The Case of the Hillside Stranglers", where Melle used lower-register instruments to create a chilling score. Other films for the eighties include "Blood Beach", "The Last Chase" and "Hot Target". Melle's work has been recorded by The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, The New Zeland Symphony Orchestra, The Los Angeles Symphony and The National Philharmonic Orchestra of London. In all, he composed music for a remarkable 125 motion pictures.