Solid!

Born

• August 4, 1924
• Crystal Bay, MN

Tom Talbert

Often compared to Stan Getz and Gil Evans, Tom Talbert's early work hearkened the birth of the West Coast ''cool'' jazz movement. Talbert was an innovative composer and arranger. His music is considered complicated and difficult by most musicians, though it is greatly admired.

Born and raised in Minnesota, Talbert taught himself to play piano at an early age. He entered the Army in 1943 and was stationed at Fort Ord, California, where he arranged for a military dance band which toured the state on bond drives. After his discharge in 1946 he arranged for several groups before joining Johnny Richards's orchestra. Impressed by the young Talbert's abilities Richards convinced him to form his own group. Featuring, at one time or another, such musicians as Babe Russin, Art Pepper, and Dodo Marmarosa, Tom Talbert's Jazz Orchestra was well-received by critics and recorded on the Paramount label. Jean Louis was vocalist.

In 1950 Talbert disbanded his group and joined Stan Kenton's Innovations in Modern Music Orchestra as an arranger. He later moved to New York, where he began to experiment with classical music. During the early 1950s Talbert kept busy working as an arranger for such artists as Claude Thornhill, Oscar Pettiford, Johnny Smith, and Marion McPartland. In 1956 he recorded the successful Wednesday's Child with vocalist Patty McGovern and the following year formed a new orchestra to produce the lauded Bix Duke Flats. Disappointments and failures followed, however, and in the early 1960s he left the commercial jazz world and returned to Minnesota, later moving to Wisconsin, where he worked with a twelve-piece combo.

In the mid-1970s Talbert settled in Los Angeles where he began composing for film and television. His work for the small screen includes the programs Emergency and Serpico. Talbert also formed another orchestra in 1976 and continued to write, record, and perform until the 1990s.