Harvey Brooks

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

Harvey Brooks · Harvey Oliver Brooks was an American pianist and composer, born on 17 February 1899 and died on 17 June 1968. He toured and recorded in the early 1920s with the singer Mamie Smith and then settled in California. From 1923 he led the Quality Four together with Paul Howard, a quartet with a female singer, named after the Quality Cafe in Los Angeles. He stayed with that group and with Howard's Quality Serenaders, with whom he also made recordings, until 1930.

Music and breakthrough

From 1931 to 1935 Brooks was musical director of Les Hite's orchestra. In that role he worked for Hollywood studios and wrote film music. He was the first Black American to write the complete score for a major feature film: I'm No Angel from 1933, starring Mae West. Later he led a band of his own, played with Kid Ory from 1952 and recorded with Teddy Buckner and Joe Darensbourg.

Influence

From 1961 he was a member of the Young Men of New Orleans, a Dixieland group, which he led during the last year of his life. His place in history is that of a pioneer in Hollywood: a Black musician who, in a closed world, opened the way for later film composers. In the Netflix series Big Mouth he appears as the man who accompanies the young Duke Ellington.

Listening

In School of Rock

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