Biography

Early life

Mandel was born in New York City to Alfred, a garment manufacturer, and Hannah, an opera singer, who discovered her son had perfect pitch at the age of five. Piano lessons ensued, but Mandel switched to the trumpet and later the trombone.

Music career

He studied at the Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard School. In 1943 he played the trumpet with Joe Venuti, in 1944 with Billy Rogers and trombone in the bands of Boyd Raeburn, Jimmy Dorsey, Buddy Rich, Georgie Auld and Chubby Jackson. In 1949 he accompanied the singer June Christy in the orchestra of Bob Cooper. From 1951 till 1953 he played and arranged music in Elliot Lawrence's orchestra, and in 1953 with Count Basie. Later he resided in Los Angeles, where he played the bass trumpet for Zoot Sims.

A 1944 Band graduate of New York Military Academy, in Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY, he wrote jazz compositions like "Not Really the Blues" for Woody Herman in 1949, "Hershey Bar" (1950) and "Pot Luck" (1953) for Stan Getz, "Straight Life" (1953) and "Low Life" (1956) for Count Basie as well as "Tommyhawk" (1954) for Chet Baker.

Mandel has composed, conducted and arranged the music for numerous movie sound tracks. His earliest credited contribution was to I Want to Live! in 1958, which was nominated for a Grammy.

Mandel's most famous compositions include "Suicide Is Painless" (theme from the movie and TV series M*A*S*H), "Close Enough for Love", "Emily" and "A Time for Love" (nominated for an Academy Award). He has written numerous film scores, including the score of The Sandpiper. The love theme for that film, "The Shadow of Your Smile", which he co-wrote with Paul Francis Webster, won the 1965 Academy Award for Best Song and the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1966.

He performed an interpretation of Erik Satie's "Gnossiennes #4 and #5" on the piano for the 1979 film Being There.

He won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s) in 1981 for Quincy Jones's album Velas, and again in 1991 for Natalie Cole and Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable", and one year later once more for Shirley Horn's album Here's to Life.

In 2004 Mandel arranged Tony Bennett's album The Art of Romance. Bennett and Mandel had collaborated before on Bennett's The Movie Song Album (1966), for which Mandel arranged and conducted his songs "Emily" and "The Shadow of Your Smile", and was also the album's musical director.

Personal life

Mandel married Lois Lee in 1959, and Martha Blanner in 1972, and has a daughter, Marrisa, born in 1976. Mandel is also the cousin of the late fellow film composer, Miles Goodman.

Honors

Mandel is a recipient of the 2011 NEA Jazz Masters Award.

Mandel's most recent project is a CD called Johnny Mandel, A Man and His Music, featuring The DIVA Jazz Orchestra and vocalist Ann Hampton Callaway, recorded live at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola in May 2010, released by Arbors Records in March 2011.

Selected compositions

• A Christmas Love Song (lyrics, Alan Bergman & Marilyn Bergman)
• Close Enough for Love (lyrics, Paul Williams)
• Emily (lyrics, Johnny Mercer)
• The Shadow of Your Smile (lyrics, Paul Francis Webster)
• Suicide Is Painless (lyrics, Mike Altman)
• Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (lyrics, Alan Bergman & Marilyn Bergman)
• A Time for Love (lyrics, Paul Francis Webster)
• Where Do You Start? (lyrics, Alan Bergman & Marilyn Bergman)
• You Are There (lyrics, Dave Frishberg)

Selected arrangements

• 1956 Hoagy Sings Carmichael - Hoagy Carmichael
• 1960 Ring-a-Ding-Ding! - Frank Sinatra
• 1966 "Emily", "The Shadow of Your Smile" from The Movie Song Album - Tony Bennett
• 1981 "Velas" from The Dude - Quincy Jones
• 1992 Here's to Life - Shirley Horn
• 1995 Pearls - David Sanborn
• 1999 When I Look in Your Eyes - Diana Krall
• 2001 You're My Thrill - Shirley Horn
• 2004 The Art of Romance - Tony Bennett
• 2009 Love Is the Answer - Barbra Streisand

Selected filmography

Johnny Mandel composed and/or arranged music for the following motion pictures or television programs:

• 1958: I Want to Live!
• 1960: The 3rd Voice
• 1961: The Lawbreakers
• 1963: Drums of Africa
• 1964: The Americanization of Emily
• 1965: The Sandpiper
• 1965: Mister Roberts (1 episode)
• 1966: Harper
• 1966: The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming
• 1966: Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre (2 episodes)
• 1967: Point Blank
• 1968: Pretty Poison
• 1969: Heaven with a Gun
• 1969: That Cold Day in the Park
• 1969: Some Kind of a Nut
• 1970: M*A*S*H
• 1970: The Man Who Had Power Over Women
• 1972: M*A*S*H (12 episodes)
• 1972: Journey Through Rosebud
• 1972: Molly and Lawless John
• 1973: The Last Detail
• 1974: W
• 1975: Escape to Witch Mountain
• 1976: Freaky Friday
• 1976: The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea
• 1979: Agatha
• 1979: Being There
• 1979: The Baltimore Bullet
• 1980: Too Close For Comfort (2 episodes)
• 1980: Caddyshack
• 1982: Deathtrap
• 1982: Lookin' to Get Out
• 1982: The Verdict
• 1986: Amazing Stories (1 episode)
• 1989: Brenda Starr

Selected discography

• 1966 Quietly There, Bill Perkins Quintet, (Riverside)
• 1958 A Sure Thing: David Allen Sings Jerome Kern (Pacific Jazz Records)
• 1983 The Shadow of Your Smile...Pinky Winters Sings Johnny Mandel...with Lou Levy (Celler Door)
• 1984 Zoot Sims Plays Johnny Mandel: Quietly There (Fantasy Records)
• 1993 A Time For Love...The Music Of Johnny Mandel, Bill Watrous (GNP Crescendo Record Co.)
• 1994 Fred Hersh Plays Johnny Mandel: I Never Told You So (Varese Sarabande)
• 2011 Johnny Mandel, A Man and His Music, with The DIVA Jazz Orchestra and Ann Hampton Callaway (Arbors Records)
• 2014 Quietly There, Harry Allen/Jan Lundgren Quartet, (Stunt)

With Count Basie

• Dance Session (Clef, 1953)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]