Russell Garcia (composer)
Encyclopedia
Russell Garcia, QSM (12 April 1916 – 20 November 2011) was a composer and arranger who wrote a wide variety of music for screen, stage and broadcast.
Garcia was born in Oakland, California
, but was a long time resident of New Zealand
. Self-taught, his break came when he substituted for an ill colleague on a radio show. Subsequently, he went on to become composer/arranger at NBC Studios
for such televison shows as Rawhide
1962and Laredo
, 1965-67, MGM and Universal Studios
and films like the George Pal
, MGM films, The Time Machine
(1960) and Atlantis, the Lost Continent
(1961), as well as his orchestrated themes for Father Goose
(1964) and The Benny Goodman Story
(1956). He collaborated with many musical and Hollywood stars - Ella Fitzgerald
, Louis Armstrong
, Anita O’Day, Mel Torme
, Julie London
, Oscar Peterson
, Stan Kenton
, Maynard Ferguson
, Walt Disney
, Orson Welles
, Jane Wyman
, Ronald Reagan
, Andy Williams
, Judy Garland
, Henry Mancini
, and Charlie Chaplin
making arrangements and conducting orchestras as needed.
Russ loved to ski so he would write on-site scores to ski-content films.
to come on, it was obvious the child had a special interest in music. One of his brothers presented him with an old cornet
he bought for $5, which Russ taught himself to play. In school he started a jazz band to play his new horn, and ended up using the band as an outlet for his compositions and arrangements of standards – all self-taught. “I’ve been able to read music since I was little,” he says. “I don’t know how, because I had lessons only when I went to high school. Call it instinct, call it a gift, I’ve never questioned my musical ability. I’m thankful for it. If I take up a sheet of manuscript paper and a pen there’s a whole orchestra playing in my head. At times I can’t write quickly enough to keep up with what’s flowing out of me.”
Garcia and his wife Gina Mauriello Garcia, a published author and singer-lyricist-writer in her own right, became members of the Bahá'í Faith
in 1955. In 1966, at the height of his career they sold their home and possessions, bought a boat, and on 1 June set sail. The couple knew nothing about sailing and his wife did not know how to swim and the early arrival of Hurricane Alma
forced them to return with damage after only two days at sea. It was December before the boat was finally repaired and they set forth once again. This time they reached Nassau without any further complications and spent several years as "travel-teachers" for the Bahá'ís as they went around the world to places like the Galapagos Islands
, Haiti
, Cuba
, Jamaica
, Tahiti
and the Marquesas Islands
.
When they reached Fiji
in 1969, some musicians from Auckland, New Zealand invited Garcia to do some live concerts, radio and television shows and to lecture at the various universities around the country on behalf of the New Zealand Broadcasting Commission and Music Trades Association. Russell, finished with his lectures and concerts and on advice of friends, drove up to the Bay of Islands
in the north of North Island
. Garcia and his wife fell in love with the location and bought a house on the waters edge of Tangitu Bay in the Te Puna Inlet, east of the Purerua Peninsula
near Kerikeri
.
They spent many years there but have moved into Kerikeri, and still working regularly, Garcia continues to compose and arrange both in the U.S. and around the world, including one of his most recent projects being his and Gina’s first opera, The Unquenchable Flame. Together, the Garcias also volunteer their services regularly to teach primary school children in New Zealand about virtues through the use of songs, raps, stories, games and creative exercises.
had an event Contemporary Concepts Presented - A 4 Day Jazz Festival Celebrating The West Coast Big Band Sound in Concert in Los Angeles, California. Speakers/Panelists included Russell Garcia, Buddy Childers, Pete Rugolo
, and Allyn Ferguson
.
On 27 May 2005 the L.A. Jazz Institute honored Garcia for his more than 60 years of contributions to jazz. The evening was hosted by Tierney Sutton
and guest speakers included Bill Holman (musician)
, Duane Tatro and Bud Shank
. Charmed Life: Shaynee Rainbolt Sings Russell Garcia is a recent CD release featuring his work in collaboration.
Russell and Gina Garcia both received the 2009 Queen's Service Medal for New Zealand for their service to music.
, he dropped out because he felt he was not learning enough and instead, went on the road with several big bands. But he remained unsatisfied, because he says “I wasn’t advancing fast enough.” He recalled, “I quit and went to Hollywood and had lessons with the best teachers I could find.” He studied composition, harmony, orchestration, counterpoint and form. He took lessons on every instrument so he could write for each with a deeper awareness, rather than just by ear as he had done in the past. He also conducted the West Hollywood Symphony Orchestra once a week for two years, a remarkable experience for a young man in his 20’s, and he says it primed him for what was to come.
His first break came in 1939, when the composer/conductor of the radio show This is Our America fell ill and Garcia was recommended to fill in. He so impressed the director, Ronald Reagan
, that he was kept on for two years. Reagan was then married to Jane Wyman
who recommended Garcia to NBC where he was hired as a staff composer and arranger. As word got out, he says he never had to look for work: “It’s always come to me. I do lead a charmed life.” Soon after Henry Mancini
called on Garcia and his extraordinary talent of transcribing note for note, instrument for instrument, to work on The Glenn Miller Story
. Charlie Chaplin
hired him to do all the arrangements for Limelight, and Universal Studios contracted him to work as composer, arranger and conductor. He remained in the post for 15 years. In 1957 when an arranger/conductor was needed for a Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald record album Porgy And Bess, Garcia was hired. It is still an international best seller. He undertook three more albums and a concert at the Hollywood Bowl
with Armstrong.
Bethlehem Records
often called on Garcia’s arranging abilities since he was one of the few Hollywood soundstage and studio veterans who could easily and naturally switch from film scoring to jazz arranging without missing a beat. Developing a parallel career, not only did he provide arrangements for many singers and instrumentalists, he recorded over 60 albums under his own name, as well as composing for cutting edge projects such as the Stan Kenton Neophonic Orchestra.
He has always been an innovator with his music using experimental frameworks on which newer and greater presentations could be fashioned, as he proved, assembling his unexpected and groundbreaking four-trombone band with brass players Frank Rosolino
, Tommy Pederson
, Maynard Ferguson
and Herbie Harper
. Marty Paich
can even be heard on some of these sessions at the piano. He used this instrumentation and sound to great success in collaborations with singers like Frances Faye and Anita O’Day, and now brings it back to us in his most recent collaboration: a recording of all Garcia originals with New York vocalist, Shaynee Rainbolt.
Yet even though he loved what he was doing, in 1966 he decided to walk away from it all. “I fought in the Battle of the Bulge
during World War II and vowed that if I ever got out of it alive, I was going to dedicate myself to world peace.” The Garcia’s decided to sail the Pacific Ocean, carrying the message of peace and the Bahá'í Faith to the remote islands of the South Pacific. Garcia said, “Not many people have the chance to follow their hearts with no financial worries. We had the “charm” working for us: we knew the royalties would see us through for some years.” They spent the next six years on their 13-metre fiberglass trimaran the Dawn-Breaker, as “traveling teachers,” anchoring in such exotic locations as Jamaica, the Galapagos Islands, the Marquesas and Tahiti.
In Fiji, in 1969, the “charm” spun again when musicians visiting from Auckland invited Garcia, on behalf of the New Zealand Broadcasting Commission and the Music Trades Association, to do live concerts, radio and TV shows as well as lecture at universities around the country, a perfect fit seeing as Garcia is also known in music circles as the author of what are considered the definitive textbooks on composition: The Professional Arranger Composer Books I and II. They have been translated into six languages and are used in universities and conservatories around the world.
His Baha'i music includes the music (and non scripture lyrics) for 1960s and 1970s songs "One Heart Ruby Red" (with Donna Taylor), "Nightingale of Paradise" (with Gina Garcia), "Hollow Reed", "We Will Have One World", "The Hatin' Wall" (with Donna Taylor), "Live in the Glory" (with Dorothy Wayne), "Hidden Words", and "Into Parched and Arid Wastelands"
Garcia was born in Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, but was a long time resident of New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. Self-taught, his break came when he substituted for an ill colleague on a radio show. Subsequently, he went on to become composer/arranger at NBC Studios
NBC Studios
The NBC Studios in New York, New York is located at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the historic GE Building houses the headquarters of the NBC television network, its parent General Electric, and NBC's flagship station WNBC , as well as cable news channel MSNBC.When NBC Universal relocated,...
for such televison shows as Rawhide
Rawhide (TV series)
Rawhide is an American Western series that aired for eight seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights, from January 9, 1959 to September 3, 1965, before moving to Tuesday nights from September 14, 1965 until January 4, 1966, with a total of 217 black-and-white episodes...
1962and Laredo
Laredo (TV series)
Laredo is an NBC Western television series starring Neville Brand, William Smith, Peter Brown, and Philip Carey as Texas Rangers. The program premiered on September 16, 1965, and the final new episode was broadcast on April 7, 1967. The series was produced by Universal Television.-Synopsis:Laredo...
, 1965-67, MGM and Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
and films like the George Pal
George Pál
George Pal , born György Pál Marczincsak, was a Hungarian-born American animator and film producer, principally associated with the science fiction genre...
, MGM films, The Time Machine
The Time Machine (1960 film)
The Time Machine is a 1960 American science fiction film based on the 1895 novel of the same name by H. G. Wells in which a man in Victorian England constructs a time-travelling machine which he uses to travel to the future...
(1960) and Atlantis, the Lost Continent
Atlantis, the Lost Continent
Atlantis, the Lost Continent is a 1961 science fiction film, directed by George Pal and starring Anthony Hall aka: Sal Ponti, about the destruction of Atlantis during the time of Ancient Greece.-Plot:...
(1961), as well as his orchestrated themes for Father Goose
Father Goose
Father Goose may refer to:* Father Goose: His Book, by L. Frank Baum, or the character of that name in his other works* Father Goose, a book by Chapman Mortimer that won the 1951 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction...
(1964) and The Benny Goodman Story
The Benny Goodman Story
The Benny Goodman Story is a biographical film starring Steve Allen and Donna Reed, directed by Valentine Davies and released by Universal Studios in 1956. The film is based on the life of famed clarinetist Benny Goodman, who recorded most of the clarinet solos used in the film...
(1956). He collaborated with many musical and Hollywood stars - Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
, Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
, Anita O’Day, Mel Torme
Mel Tormé
Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...
, Julie London
Julie London
Julie London was an American singer and actress. She was best known for her smoky, sensual voice. London was at her singing career's peak in the 1950s. Her acting career lasted more than 35 years...
, Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...
, Stan Kenton
Stan Kenton
Stanley Newcomb "Stan" Kenton was a pianist, composer, and arranger who led a highly innovative, influential, and often controversial American jazz orchestra. In later years he was widely active as an educator....
, Maynard Ferguson
Maynard Ferguson
Maynard Ferguson was a Canadian jazz musician and bandleader. He came to prominence playing in Stan Kenton's orchestra, before forming his own band in 1957...
, Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
, Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
, Jane Wyman
Jane Wyman
Jane Wyman was an American singer, dancer, and character actress of film and television. She began her film career in the 1930s, and was a prolific performer for two decades...
, Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
, Andy Williams
Andy Williams
Howard Andrew "Andy" Williams is an American singer who has recorded 18 Gold- and three Platinum-certified albums. He hosted The Andy Williams Show, a TV variety show, from 1962 to 1971, as well as numerous television specials, and owns his own theater, the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri,...
, Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
, Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995...
, and Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
making arrangements and conducting orchestras as needed.
Russ loved to ski so he would write on-site scores to ski-content films.
Personal life
One of five brothers, he grew up in what he said was an “ordinary” household where music was something that came out of the radio. When his family noticed the five-year-old Russ standing by the radio every Sunday morning waiting for the New York PhilharmonicNew York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
to come on, it was obvious the child had a special interest in music. One of his brothers presented him with an old cornet
Cornet
The cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical bore, compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. It is not related to the renaissance and early baroque cornett or cornetto.-History:The cornet was...
he bought for $5, which Russ taught himself to play. In school he started a jazz band to play his new horn, and ended up using the band as an outlet for his compositions and arrangements of standards – all self-taught. “I’ve been able to read music since I was little,” he says. “I don’t know how, because I had lessons only when I went to high school. Call it instinct, call it a gift, I’ve never questioned my musical ability. I’m thankful for it. If I take up a sheet of manuscript paper and a pen there’s a whole orchestra playing in my head. At times I can’t write quickly enough to keep up with what’s flowing out of me.”
Garcia and his wife Gina Mauriello Garcia, a published author and singer-lyricist-writer in her own right, became members of the Bahá'í Faith
Bahá'í Faith
The Bahá'í Faith is a monotheistic religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in 19th-century Persia, emphasizing the spiritual unity of all humankind. There are an estimated five to six million Bahá'ís around the world in more than 200 countries and territories....
in 1955. In 1966, at the height of his career they sold their home and possessions, bought a boat, and on 1 June set sail. The couple knew nothing about sailing and his wife did not know how to swim and the early arrival of Hurricane Alma
Hurricane Alma (1966)
Hurricane Alma was a rare June major hurricane in the 1966 Atlantic hurricane season. It was the earliest continental U.S. hurricane strike within any season since 1908...
forced them to return with damage after only two days at sea. It was December before the boat was finally repaired and they set forth once again. This time they reached Nassau without any further complications and spent several years as "travel-teachers" for the Bahá'ís as they went around the world to places like the Galapagos Islands
Galápagos Islands
The Galápagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed around the equator in the Pacific Ocean, west of continental Ecuador, of which they are a part.The Galápagos Islands and its surrounding waters form an Ecuadorian province, a national park, and a...
, Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
, Tahiti
Tahiti
Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...
and the Marquesas Islands
Marquesas Islands
The Marquesas Islands enana and Te Fenua `Enata , both meaning "The Land of Men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southern Pacific Ocean. The Marquesas are located at 9° 00S, 139° 30W...
.
When they reached Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
in 1969, some musicians from Auckland, New Zealand invited Garcia to do some live concerts, radio and television shows and to lecture at the various universities around the country on behalf of the New Zealand Broadcasting Commission and Music Trades Association. Russell, finished with his lectures and concerts and on advice of friends, drove up to the Bay of Islands
Bay of Islands
The Bay of Islands is an area in the Northland Region of the North Island of New Zealand. Located 60 km north-west of Whangarei, it is close to the northern tip of the country....
in the north of North Island
North Island
The North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The island is in area, making it the world's 14th-largest island...
. Garcia and his wife fell in love with the location and bought a house on the waters edge of Tangitu Bay in the Te Puna Inlet, east of the Purerua Peninsula
Purerua Peninsula
Purerua Peninsula is a peninsula on the northwest side of the Bay of Islands in Northland, New Zealand. Te Puna Inlet lies to the south of the peninsula. Communities on the peninsula are Purerua, Te Tii and Taronui Bay...
near Kerikeri
Kerikeri
Kerikeri, the largest town in the Northland Region of New Zealand, is a popular tourist destination about three hours drive north of Auckland, and 80 km north of Whangarei...
.
They spent many years there but have moved into Kerikeri, and still working regularly, Garcia continues to compose and arrange both in the U.S. and around the world, including one of his most recent projects being his and Gina’s first opera, The Unquenchable Flame. Together, the Garcias also volunteer their services regularly to teach primary school children in New Zealand about virtues through the use of songs, raps, stories, games and creative exercises.
Events and awards
Memorial Day weekend, 2003, Russell Garcia and Buddy ChildersBuddy Childers
Marion "Buddy" Childers became famous in 1942 at the age of 16, when Stan Kenton hired him to be the lead trumpet in his band.As Childers later told Steve Voce:...
had an event Contemporary Concepts Presented - A 4 Day Jazz Festival Celebrating The West Coast Big Band Sound in Concert in Los Angeles, California. Speakers/Panelists included Russell Garcia, Buddy Childers, Pete Rugolo
Pete Rugolo
Pietro "Pete" Rugolo was an Italian-born jazz composer and arranger.-Life and career:Rugolo was born in San Piero Patti, Sicily, Italy. His family emigrated to the United States in 1920 and settled in Santa Rosa, California...
, and Allyn Ferguson
Allyn Ferguson
Allyn Malcolm Ferguson Jr. was an American composer, best known for the themes for 1970s television programs Barney Miller and Charlie's Angels, which he co-wrote with Jack Elliott...
.
On 27 May 2005 the L.A. Jazz Institute honored Garcia for his more than 60 years of contributions to jazz. The evening was hosted by Tierney Sutton
Tierney Sutton
Tierney Sutton is an American jazz singer.A three-time Grammy Nominee for "Best Jazz Vocal Album" and "a selection by Jazzweek as Vocalist of the Year in 2005," Sutton was born in Wisconsin and was educated at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut and the Berklee College of Music in...
and guest speakers included Bill Holman (musician)
Bill Holman (musician)
Willis Leonard Holman , known also as Bill Holman, is an American composer/arranger, conductor, saxophonist, and songwriter working primarily in the jazz idiom....
, Duane Tatro and Bud Shank
Bud Shank
Clifford Everett "Bud" Shank, Jr. was an American alto saxophonist and flautist. He rose to prominence in the early 1950s playing lead alto and flute in Stan Kenton's Innovations in Modern Music Orchestra and throughout the decade worked in various small jazz combos. He spent the 1960s as a first...
. Charmed Life: Shaynee Rainbolt Sings Russell Garcia is a recent CD release featuring his work in collaboration.
Russell and Gina Garcia both received the 2009 Queen's Service Medal for New Zealand for their service to music.
Professional career
When he was eleven years old, the Oakland Symphony Orchestra performed his arrangement of "Stardust". By the time Garcia was in high school, he was working five nights a week playing music and earning more than his father who was a credit manager in a large department store. After one year at San Francisco State UniversitySan Francisco State University
San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...
, he dropped out because he felt he was not learning enough and instead, went on the road with several big bands. But he remained unsatisfied, because he says “I wasn’t advancing fast enough.” He recalled, “I quit and went to Hollywood and had lessons with the best teachers I could find.” He studied composition, harmony, orchestration, counterpoint and form. He took lessons on every instrument so he could write for each with a deeper awareness, rather than just by ear as he had done in the past. He also conducted the West Hollywood Symphony Orchestra once a week for two years, a remarkable experience for a young man in his 20’s, and he says it primed him for what was to come.
His first break came in 1939, when the composer/conductor of the radio show This is Our America fell ill and Garcia was recommended to fill in. He so impressed the director, Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
, that he was kept on for two years. Reagan was then married to Jane Wyman
Jane Wyman
Jane Wyman was an American singer, dancer, and character actress of film and television. She began her film career in the 1930s, and was a prolific performer for two decades...
who recommended Garcia to NBC where he was hired as a staff composer and arranger. As word got out, he says he never had to look for work: “It’s always come to me. I do lead a charmed life.” Soon after Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995...
called on Garcia and his extraordinary talent of transcribing note for note, instrument for instrument, to work on The Glenn Miller Story
The Glenn Miller Story
The Glenn Miller Story is a 1954 American film directed by Anthony Mann and starring James Stewart in their first non-western collaboration.-Plot:...
. Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
hired him to do all the arrangements for Limelight, and Universal Studios contracted him to work as composer, arranger and conductor. He remained in the post for 15 years. In 1957 when an arranger/conductor was needed for a Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald record album Porgy And Bess, Garcia was hired. It is still an international best seller. He undertook three more albums and a concert at the Hollywood Bowl
Hollywood Bowl
The Hollywood Bowl is a modern amphitheater in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, United States that is used primarily for music performances...
with Armstrong.
Bethlehem Records
Bethlehem Records
Bethlehem Records was a record label based in New York and Hollywood founded by Gus Wildi in 1953. It was bought by King Records in the early 1960s....
often called on Garcia’s arranging abilities since he was one of the few Hollywood soundstage and studio veterans who could easily and naturally switch from film scoring to jazz arranging without missing a beat. Developing a parallel career, not only did he provide arrangements for many singers and instrumentalists, he recorded over 60 albums under his own name, as well as composing for cutting edge projects such as the Stan Kenton Neophonic Orchestra.
He has always been an innovator with his music using experimental frameworks on which newer and greater presentations could be fashioned, as he proved, assembling his unexpected and groundbreaking four-trombone band with brass players Frank Rosolino
Frank Rosolino
Frank Rosolino was an American jazz trombonist.- Biography :Born in Detroit, Michigan, Frank Rosolino studied the guitar with his father from the age of 9. He took up the trombone at age 14 while he was enrolled at Miller High School where he played with Milt Jackson in the school's stage band and...
, Tommy Pederson
Tommy Pederson
Pullman Gerald "Tommy" Pederson was an American trombonist and composer – prolific in jazz, big band, and classical genres. He had performed and recorded with big bands and artists that included Gene Krupa, Tommy Dorsey, Nelson Riddle, Doc Severinsen , and Frank Sinatra...
, Maynard Ferguson
Maynard Ferguson
Maynard Ferguson was a Canadian jazz musician and bandleader. He came to prominence playing in Stan Kenton's orchestra, before forming his own band in 1957...
and Herbie Harper
Herbie Harper
Herbie Harper jazz trombonist of the West Coast jazz school born in Salina, Kansas, though he first had his start playing swing music with the likes of Benny Goodman or Charlie Spivak in the 1940s and 1950s. Working on the West Coast jazz music scene, he performed with such musicians as Stan...
. Marty Paich
Marty Paich
Martin Louis "Marty" Paich was an American pianist, composer, arranger, producer, music director and conductor....
can even be heard on some of these sessions at the piano. He used this instrumentation and sound to great success in collaborations with singers like Frances Faye and Anita O’Day, and now brings it back to us in his most recent collaboration: a recording of all Garcia originals with New York vocalist, Shaynee Rainbolt.
Yet even though he loved what he was doing, in 1966 he decided to walk away from it all. “I fought in the Battle of the Bulge
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was a major German offensive , launched toward the end of World War II through the densely forested Ardennes mountain region of Wallonia in Belgium, hence its French name , and France and...
during World War II and vowed that if I ever got out of it alive, I was going to dedicate myself to world peace.” The Garcia’s decided to sail the Pacific Ocean, carrying the message of peace and the Bahá'í Faith to the remote islands of the South Pacific. Garcia said, “Not many people have the chance to follow their hearts with no financial worries. We had the “charm” working for us: we knew the royalties would see us through for some years.” They spent the next six years on their 13-metre fiberglass trimaran the Dawn-Breaker, as “traveling teachers,” anchoring in such exotic locations as Jamaica, the Galapagos Islands, the Marquesas and Tahiti.
In Fiji, in 1969, the “charm” spun again when musicians visiting from Auckland invited Garcia, on behalf of the New Zealand Broadcasting Commission and the Music Trades Association, to do live concerts, radio and TV shows as well as lecture at universities around the country, a perfect fit seeing as Garcia is also known in music circles as the author of what are considered the definitive textbooks on composition: The Professional Arranger Composer Books I and II. They have been translated into six languages and are used in universities and conservatories around the world.
His music
- 1950 - Radar Secret Service
- 1953 - Limelight, miscredited 1972 Oscar for Best Original Dramatic Score given to someone else
- 1955 - Wigville
- 1955 - Four Horns and a Lush Life
- 1956 - On Four Horns and a Lush Wife
- 1956 - The Johnny Evergreens
- 1956 - Peggy ConnellyPeggy ConnellyPeggy Connelly was a singer and actress, former wife of Dick Martin , with whom she had a son, Cary Martin.Peggy Lou Connelly was born in Shreveport, Louisiana and reared in Fort Worth, Texas...
with Russ Garcia--That Old Black Magic - 1956/57 - About the Blues (Julie London album)
- 1956 - The Complete Porgy and BessThe Complete Porgy and BessThis 1956 recording based on George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess was the second "complete" recording of the opera after the 1951 version recorded several years earlier, and the first recording of the work to feature jazz singers and musicians instead of operatic singers and a classical orchestra...
- 1957 - Porgy and Bess Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong
- 1957 - The Warm Feeling
- 1957 - Listen to the Music of Russell Garcia
- 1957 - Make Love to Me (Julie London album)Make Love to Me (Julie London album)-References:...
- 1957 - Sounds in the Night (Bethlehem Records)
- 1958 - Anita Sings the WinnersAnita Sings the WinnersAnita O'Day Sings the Winners is a 1958 album by Anita O'Day.The concept of this album was to pick the "winners" from the top Jazz and Orchestral Charts.-Track listing:#"Take the "A" Train" - 2:48...
- 1959 - Get Happy! (Ella Fitzgerald album)
- 1959 - Jazz Music for Birds and Hep Cats
- 1959 - Fantastica: Music From Outer Space - see Theodore KeepTheodore KeepTheodore "Ted" Keep was a co-founder of Liberty Records. In his role as chief of engineering at the label and afterward, Keep introduced a number of innovations to commercial sound recording....
- 1960 - Cool Velvet (see Stan GetzStan GetzStanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...
) - 1960 - Mel TormeMel TorméMelvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...
: Swingin' On the MoonSwingin' On the MoonSwingin' on the Moon is a 1960 album by Mel Tormé. The Moon is the connecting theme, and every track, but one, contains the word "moon" in the title... - 1960 - Margaret Whiting Sings the Jerome Kern SongbookMargaret Whiting Sings the Jerome Kern SongbookMargaret Whiting Sings the Jerome Kern Songbook is a 1960 studio album by Margaret Whiting, with an orchestra conducted and arranged by Russell Garcia, focusing on the songs of Jerome Kern...
- 1960 - Blossom DearieBlossom DearieBlossom Dearie was an American jazz singer and pianist, often performing in the bebop genre and remembered for her girlish voice.-Early career:...
: Soubrette Sings Broadway Hit SongsSoubrette Sings Broadway Hit SongsSoubrette: Blossom Dearie Sings Broadway Hit Songs is a 1960 studio album by Blossom Dearie, with an orchestra arranged by Russell Garcia.This was Dearie's first album recorded with full orchestral arrangements.-Track listing:... - 1960 - The Time MachineThe Time Machine (1960 film)The Time Machine is a 1960 American science fiction film based on the 1895 novel of the same name by H. G. Wells in which a man in Victorian England constructs a time-travelling machine which he uses to travel to the future...
(soundtrack) - 1961 - Atlantis, the Lost ContinentAtlantis, the Lost ContinentAtlantis, the Lost Continent is a 1961 science fiction film, directed by George Pal and starring Anthony Hall aka: Sal Ponti, about the destruction of Atlantis during the time of Ancient Greece.-Plot:...
(soundtrack) - 1965 - Laredo (TV series)Laredo (TV series)Laredo is an NBC Western television series starring Neville Brand, William Smith, Peter Brown, and Philip Carey as Texas Rangers. The program premiered on September 16, 1965, and the final new episode was broadcast on April 7, 1967. The series was produced by Universal Television.-Synopsis:Laredo...
(soundtrack) - 1968 - Three Guns for Texas (soundtrack)
- 1979 - Variations for Flugelhorn, String Quartet, Bass & Drums
- 1986 - Jazz Variations
- 2002 - The Unquenchable Flame
- 2009 - Charmed Life: Shaynee Rainbolt SINGS Russell Garcia
His Baha'i music includes the music (and non scripture lyrics) for 1960s and 1970s songs "One Heart Ruby Red" (with Donna Taylor), "Nightingale of Paradise" (with Gina Garcia), "Hollow Reed", "We Will Have One World", "The Hatin' Wall" (with Donna Taylor), "Live in the Glory" (with Dorothy Wayne), "Hidden Words", and "Into Parched and Arid Wastelands"
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- Note: This discography is incomplete