Claude Thornhill

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Claude Thornhill (1908 to 1965) was an American pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader. He was already playing piano professionally at the age of eleven and studied at the Cincinnati conservatory and at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. As a young man he formed a travelling duo with the clarinettist Danny Polo. He began his career in Cleveland together with Artie Shaw, and in 1931 they went to New York together. There he played with Glenn Miller, Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman and Billie Holiday, among others, and wrote arrangements for Maxine Sullivan and later for Judy Garland in Babes in Arms. In the mid-1930s he worked as an arranger and pianist for Andre Kostelanetz.

Music and breakthrough

In 1939 he founded the Claude Thornhill Orchestra, with Polo as first clarinettist. It was a refined dance band that stood out for its excellent jazz musicians and for the arrangements of Thornhill and Gil Evans. The band played without vibrato, so that the sound of each instrument came out better, and Thornhill encouraged his musicians to develop a cool, Cool Jazz-like tone. The best-known recordings were Snowfall, A Sunday Kind of Love and Love for Love. He also wrote I Wish I Had You, which Billie Holiday and Fats Waller recorded. In 1942 he joined the navy and performed in the Pacific. In 1946 he got his orchestra together again, with Gerry Mulligan, among others.

Influence

His sound and unusual instrumentation served in part as a model for the Miles Davis nonet on Birth of the Cool. Thornhill is thus a link between the swing of the 1930s and the Cool Jazz of the 1950s.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1999The Transcription Performances 1947
• 2000Autumn Nocturne, Vol. 2
• ?Claude Thornhill in Disco Order, Volume 2

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• After Hours: Session 2^NL Reader