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==Biography== ==Biography==
Lerner was born in 1919 in Cleveland, with an older brother Harold "Ace". Their father had passed away before Al's birth due to the ], after which Lerner's mother, Jennie, remarried to a sheet metal worker named Abe Lerner, who became Al's adopted father. During the American ] banning the sale of alcohol, Abe Lerner used his metalworking abilities on the side to make ]s for ] and ], and used his 7-year-old son Al as a courier for payments. It was a rough neighborhood with regular mob wars between rival gangsters, multiple killings on Lerner's street, and payoffs to the local police. Abe Lerner was eventually arrested and the still business was shut down, after which the family went broke.<ref name=bio/> Lerner was born in 1919 in Cleveland, with an older brother Harold "Ace". Their father had passed away before Al's birth due to the ], after which Lerner's mother, Jennie, remarried to a sheet metal worker named Abe Lerner, who became Al's adopted father. During the ] banning the sale of alcohol, Abe Lerner used his metalworking abilities on the side to make ]s for ] and ], and used his 7-year-old son Al as a courier for payments. It was a rough neighborhood with regular mob wars between rival gangsters, multiple killings on Lerner's street, and payoffs to the local police. Abe Lerner was eventually arrested and the still business was shut down, after which the family went broke.<ref name=bio/>


As a child, Al Lerner would help bring in money by climbing onto tables in local saloons and singing songs such as "All Alone by the Telephone", and then collecting coins thrown by the patrons. He then took piano lessons at a convent next to ], but quit because he thought it was too difficult. When he saw a performance by ] at ], he decided he wanted to learn ], so studied with ], and soon was winning amateur contests. He was also learning how to play drums from his brother Harold, and began playing for $1.50/night at a local brothel. As he tired of carrying the drums back and forth though, he decided to switch back to piano as it was easier, and resumed his lessons. His skills continued to improve, and by the age of 17 he had worked his way up to earning $15/week, playing at clubs such as Shadowland, and developing an affinity for ] by listening to records by ].<ref name=bio/> As a child, Al Lerner would help bring in money by climbing onto tables in local saloons and singing songs such as "All Alone by the Telephone", and then collecting coins thrown by the patrons. He then took piano lessons at a convent next to ], but quit because he thought it was too difficult. When he saw a performance by ] at ], he decided he wanted to learn ], so studied with ], and soon was winning amateur contests. He was also learning how to play drums from his brother Harold, and began playing for $1.50/night at a local brothel. As he tired of carrying the drums back and forth though, he decided to switch back to piano as it was easier, and resumed his lessons. His skills continued to improve, and by the age of 17 he had worked his way up to earning $15/week, playing at clubs such as Shadowland, and developing an affinity for ] by listening to records by ].<ref name=bio/>

Revision as of 03:14, 29 July 2011

For the musical theatre composer, see Alan Jay Lerner.
Al Lerner
Al Lerner on the cover of his 2007 book Vamp 'Til Ready. He is playing piano, with bandleader Harry James looking on.
Born1919
Cleveland, Ohio
Known forBig band pianist and composer

Al Lerner (b. 1919 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American pianist, composer, arranger, and conductor from the Big band era. He was a member of the Harry James band for many years, playing piano. As a composer, he wrote music for several artists, including Allan Sherman and Liza Minnelli. He wrote the music for "So Until I See You" which was the closing theme for The Tonight Show with Jack Paar in the early 1960s, and was the pianist for A Tribute to Eddie Duchin, which was a tribute soundtrack for the 1956 biographical film pic The Eddy Duchin Story.

Biography

Lerner was born in 1919 in Cleveland, with an older brother Harold "Ace". Their father had passed away before Al's birth due to the 1918 flu pandemic, after which Lerner's mother, Jennie, remarried to a sheet metal worker named Abe Lerner, who became Al's adopted father. During the American Prohibition banning the sale of alcohol, Abe Lerner used his metalworking abilities on the side to make stills for Cleveland gangsters and bootleggers, and used his 7-year-old son Al as a courier for payments. It was a rough neighborhood with regular mob wars between rival gangsters, multiple killings on Lerner's street, and payoffs to the local police. Abe Lerner was eventually arrested and the still business was shut down, after which the family went broke.

As a child, Al Lerner would help bring in money by climbing onto tables in local saloons and singing songs such as "All Alone by the Telephone", and then collecting coins thrown by the patrons. He then took piano lessons at a convent next to St. Anne's Hospital, but quit because he thought it was too difficult. When he saw a performance by Bill Robinson at The Palace, he decided he wanted to learn tap dancing, so studied with Roy Lewis, and soon was winning amateur contests. He was also learning how to play drums from his brother Harold, and began playing for $1.50/night at a local brothel. As he tired of carrying the drums back and forth though, he decided to switch back to piano as it was easier, and resumed his lessons. His skills continued to improve, and by the age of 17 he had worked his way up to earning $15/week, playing at clubs such as Shadowland, and developing an affinity for jazz by listening to records by Earl Hines.

Lerner was introduced to jazz pianist Art Tatum at a Harlem Club, and was "blown away" by the man's skill as a jazz player. Lerner then traveled in search of work, going to Miami Beach but the job fell through, so he then went to Havana, Cuba, aboard The Cuba. When he returned to the United States, he got a call from Harry James, who invited Lerner to join his band in New York. There, Lerner discovered that James wanted to have an unheard-of two pianos in his band, with Lerner playing one, and Jack Gardner the other. With a steady job, Lerner proposed to his Cleveland girlfriend, Ruth, and they married and settled in New York, though Lerner spent much of his time on the road with the band, doing 50 and 60 one-night-stands at a time.

In 1941, when Ray Bolger (later the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz) was a featured act with the James band at the Paramount Theatre in New York, Lerner and Bolger would do a "challenge" tap dance as part of the show. When Glenn Miller enlisted in the Army, his band was not able to perform on the Chesterfield Hour radio program, after which the Harry James Band was chosen. This meant a major increase in salary for Lerner, up to $75/week. With the exposure on the radio show, the band also began getting work in the film industry, such as in Private Buckaroo and Springtime in the Rockies. The band got more attention, and was regularly on the move, from New York to Los Angeles and back again. It was during this time that Lerner began composing, such as writing an instrumental with Harry James, "Music Makers". When the James Band finally broke up, Lerner joined with singer Dick Haymes, working with him for the next thirteen years.

Over the course of his career, Lerner worked with many artists from the Big Band era of music, such as Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Rosemary Clooney, Kay Starr, and Pat Boone. He played with the Harry James band at the Paramount Theater in 1940, featuring Bea Wain, has performed at Carnegie Hall, and was conductor at a Royal Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth in 1954 at the London Palladium, in a benefit for the Variety Artistes Benevolent Fund. Lyricists that he has worked with include Frankie Laine and Frederick Loewe. In 1961, he composed the music for "So Until I See You", with lyrics by Victor Gari Corpora. The music was used as the closing theme of the Jack Paar Show.

As of 2011, Lerner is living in Palm Desert, California with his wife, Jonne.

Notable works

See also

References

  1. Colombi, Chris; Mosbrook, Joe. "Jazz". Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Retrieved July 18, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. Prigozy, Ruth (2006). The life of Dick Haymes: no more little white lies. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781578065516. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  3. "Artists: Al Lerner". Songs for Film and TV. Retrieved July 18, 2011.
  4. ^ Lerner, Al. Vamp Til Ready, 2007, ISBN 9781593930806
  5. "Tonight: The Jack Paar Tonight Show". classicthemes.com. Retrieved July 18, 2011.
  6. "Al Lerner". Bear Manor Media. 2007. Retrieved July 18, 2011.
  7. A Tribute to Eddie Duchin at Discogs
  8. "TV special: Glenn Miller Band Reunion". New York Times. 1989. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  9. ^ Nimmo, Harry (2004). The Andrews Sisters: a biography and career record. McFarland. p. 449. ISBN 9780786417315.
  • McLellan, Dennis (December 14, 2006). "Liltin' Martha Tilton, 91, Big-Band Vocalist". Los Angeles Times.
  • http://bearmanormedia.bizland.com/id135.html
  • ASCAP Biographical Dictionary. Fourth edition. Compiled for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers by Jaques Cattell Press. New York: R.R. Bowker, 1980.

External links

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