Harry Bluestone

Harry Bluestone

Harry Bluestone playing his violin
Background information
Born (1907-09-30)September 30, 1907
England
Origin England
Died December 22, 1992(1992-12-22) (aged 85)
Studio City, California
Occupation(s) Composer, Conductor, Music Producer
Instruments Violin
Years active 1913–1987

Harry Bluestone (September 30, 1907 – December 22, 1992) was a British violinist who composed music for TV and Movie. He was prolific and worked mainly on composing with Emil Cadkin. Earlier on, he was a violinist and freelanced on radio in the 1930s with Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman and the Dorsey Brothers. Some of his compositions were also featured on APM Music. He retired in 1987 and died of tuberculosis in Studio City, California on December 23, 1992.

Early life

Harry was born Harold B. Blostein in England on September 30, 1907 and apparently went to New York as a boy. He took up the violin at a young age, and the liner notes on his Artistry in Jazz album reveal “he performed the Bruch G-Minor Violin Concerto to critical acclaim when only 7 years old.” As a teenager, he travelled to Paris with a small jazz group to back up expatriate singer Josephine Baker. Harry graduated from the Institute of Musical Art (later renamed Juilliard School), and freelanced on numerous radio programmes in the 1930s with the Dorsey Brothers, Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw. He played with Bix Beiderbecke, Bunny Berigan and Red Nichols (who had in his employ a future cartoon sound genius named Treg Brown).

Life and career

Harry moved to Hollywood in 1935 with the Lennie Hayton Orchestra, which had been known as the Ipana Troubadors on Fred Allen’s Show in New York, when it became the first orchestra on Your Hit Parade (eventually replaced in 1939 by the Raymond Scott). Bluestone had his own 15-minute radio show, recorded for Brunswick Records and was hired by Paramount Studios as its concertmaster. He enlisted in the Air Force in 1942, rose to the rank of Master Sergeant and organised both the Army Air Force Orchestra and the Army Air Force Training Command Orchestra that replaced Glenn Miller, who went overseas to his eventual death.

After the war, Bluestone set up his own orchestra which backed Jo Stafford and Dinah Shore. He also got a first taste of the music library business as production manager for Standard Transcriptions. Among his discoveries while recording in France (to get around Jimmy Petrillo’s union) was singer Robert Clary, who later co-starred on Hogan's Heroes. Bluestone spent the rest of his life setting up various music publishing houses, writing and getting out his baton or violin, as a heavily in-demand "first chair," to work on hundreds of albums by a wide variety of artists, including the Beach Boys, Peggy Lee, Dolly Parton, Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder and the Beatles (on their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band). He also wrote books in the 1980s on playing violin, guitar and trumpet.

Bluestone lived with his wife "Le Bluestone". He died of complications of Parkinson's disease in 1992.

Filmography

Television

2008:

1999:

1956:

TV Movies

2004:

2003:

1991:

Movies

2010:

2009:

2007:

2004:

2003:

2002:

1968:

1965:

1959:

1958:

1957:

Shorts

2007:

1958:

Video Games

2010:

References

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