Van Alexander

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

Van Alexander was an American bandleader, arranger and composer. He was born in Harlem in 1915 as Alexander Van Vliet Feldman. His mother was a classical pianist and taught him to play the piano. He studied music at Columbia University and was already leading bands and writing arrangements at high school.

Music and breakthrough

In the mid-1930s he sold arrangements to Chick Webb. His best-known work from that time is A-Tisket, A-Tasket, which became a hit for Webb and Ella Fitzgerald and one of her trademarks. He also turned other nursery rhymes into jazz, such as Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone? and Got a Pebble in My Shoe. In 1938 he started a band of his own, which played in theatres into the 1940s. After that he worked briefly in Larry Clinton's orchestra, before forming a band of his own again in 1942.

Influence

Later in the 1940s Bob Crosby brought him to Hollywood. There he worked a great deal as a composer, arranger and conductor of film music. In 1950 he wrote a textbook on film arranging, First Arrangement, and Johnny Mandel was one of his pupils. He wrote music for films with Mickey Rooney, such as The Atomic Kid, for Strait-Jacket and for Tarzan and the Valley of Gold. He also made music for television series such as Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie and accompanied singers such as Doris Day, Peggy Lee and Dinah Shore. He was twice nominated for an Emmy and received the Henry Mancini Award from ASCAP. He died in 2015, at the age of 100.

Listening

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