Joe Lipman

Joseph P. Lippman (April 23, 1915 - January 21, 2007) was an American composer, arranger, conductor, pianist, and songwriter working in jazz and traditional pop.

Lipman was born Boston, Massachusetts on April 23, 1915.

He started on the piano at the age of 7.

After high school he attended college for two weeks but decided he to become a professional musician.

His musical career was over five decades long, having started at age 19 with the Benny Goodman orchestra in 1934 and writing for television, films, and Broadway in the 1980s.

He composed and arranged for Bunny Berigan, Jimmy Dorsey, Sarah Vaughan, Charlie Parker and worked as staff arranger in television for Perry Como and Hollywood Palace.

At the age of 19, Lipman moved to New York City and joined the Benny Goodman orchestra on his Let's Dance radio show in 1934 and 1935 as a pianist.

He encountered the arrangements and compositions that Goodman acquired from Fletcher Henderson.

He arranged for Vincent Lopez, and worked as pianist and arranger for Bill Staffon in 1935 and Irving Aaronson in 1936, and became pianist and arranger with the Artie Shaw Orchestra in 1936.

Lipman also played for and recorded with orchestra leader Nathaniel Shilkret in early 1937.

In 1937 Lipman joined Bunny Berigan's band as pianist and remained in that position until Joe Bushkin took over in 1938.

He re-orchestrated Berigan's second version of "I Can't Get Started" (1937).

These Lipman arrangements included the 1938/39 concept album for RCA-Victor of Bix Beiderbecke's music featuring Berigan on re-arrangements of Beiderbecke's hits from the late 1920s (Bunny Plays Bix).

On Saturday November 19, 1938, Berigan's group appeared on CBS's radio show, Saturday Night Swing Club with a contingent of nine musicians from his big band playing Lipman's new arrangement of Bix's composition In a Mist.

From that same album he also arranged "Davenport Blues", "In the Dark", and "Candlelights".

Though not a great commercial success, the album was to help Lipman move into a greater position as an arranger for more jazz and dance bands of the era.

By the end of 1939 he was not writing arrangements for Berigan's band any longer.

His arrangement on "Jazz Me Blues" would be the last he submitted.

Lipman's time with Berigan was successful but tumultuous and short lived; in August 1939 he replaced Freddie Slack to become the pianist and chief arranger for Jimmy Dorsey and stayed with the group almost three years.

Unlike his tenure with the Berigan organization, Dorsey's band was already achieving success and had a sound of its own.

Lipman wrote a string of titles for the Jimmy Dorsey band, including, "Turn Left", "Turn Right", "Murderistic", "Aurora", "Bar Babble" and "Major and Minor Stomp".

He produced more popular dance material that was challenging for the band like that of arrangers Jimmy Mundy or Jerry Gray.

After writing for Les Brown and others during the early 1940s, Lipman was at the forefront of writing and arranging for a new generation of jazz and popular musicians.

Bebop was emerging in the work of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis.

He remained with the Jimmy Dorsey band until February 1942, when he was replaced by Johnny Guarnieri.

He wrote hits for Glenn Miller such as "Blue Evening" and was helped by the success of bands led by Artie Shaw and Les Brown.

In 1948 vocalist Sarah Vaughan contracted with Columbia Records, and Lipman was hired to arrange the song "Black Coffee" for her.

His arrangement and rendering by Vaughan delivered a moody dirge about a woman's lonely fate.

"Black Coffee" rose to No. 13 on the Billboard magazine pop chart in June 1949.

Lipman was the musical director on the recording of the Eileen Barton No. 1 hit "If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd've Baked a Cake" in 1949.

Kay Thompson was paired with Lipman as her arranger and musical director in the recording studio.

Charlie Parker and his producer Norman Granz organized recording sessions in 1949 and 1950 that would culminate in the album Charlie Parker with Strings.

While arranger Jimmy Carroll designed the first set of tracks, Lipman was contracted to arrange the second session (studio recordings of July 1950).

He arranged a long list of hits that boosted Vaughan's popularity in the U.S. and U.K. Other songs he arranged for her included "Tonight I Shall Sleep With a Smile on My Face", You're Mine You", "You Taught Me to Love You Again", "Summertime", "While You're Gone", and "Bianca". In 1951 he arranged four songs for Dedicated to You, an album of duets between Vaughan and Billy Eckstine. He was contracted to write an arrangement "et (Jet, My Love)" for Nat King Cole in late 1950. In April 1951 he arranged and conducted the Capitol Records sessions for Mel Torme to record the two sides "Who Sends You Orchids" and "(I'm Sending You a) Bunch of Love".

Lipman's reputation as a conductor and arranger grew as he contracted with MGM.

On June 18, 1954 MGM issued the album Manhattan Serenade by Joe Lipman and his Orchestra.

The 1955 album Kay Thompson Sings shows Lipman as a theatrical musical arranger.

Popular singers and entertainers he wrote and arranged for through MGM during this time include Vic Damone, Betty Madigan, Kay Armen, Bill Tabbert, Jan August, Ginny Gibson, Ella Mae Morse, Fran Warren, and Bob Crosby.

These were Parker's most popular songs during his lifetime and were admitted to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1988.

With the success of first singles released from the Parker with Strings sessions, Granz and Parker agreed to record Parker in a big band session.