Arranger; Born April 3, 1917; Died June 4, 2008 Bill Finegan, who has died at the age of 91, was the co-founder of the famous Sauter-Finegan band of the 1950s.

One of the most respected arrangers of his time, he worked for such important bandleaders of the big band era as Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey, and continued to work, whenever he could, right up until his death.

His sumptuous writing was most recently heard in Scotland at the 2006 Edinburgh Jazz Festival when American cornet star Warren Vache played the music from his CD Don't Look Back, which featured three brand new Finegan arrangements.

Born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1917, William James Finegan grew up in a musical family and played piano as a youngster. While he was still in high school he formed and began writing for a band that went on to win a popular radio talent competition. The prize was a tour of the US and Canada.

His big break came when Tommy Dorsey bought his arrangement of the popular tune Lonesome Road and recommended him to Glenn Miller, who hired him in 1938.

Finegan was responsible for the Miller band's unusual and imaginative take on Little Brown Jug, its first big hit and one of more than 300 arrangements he wrote for the band in its heyday between 1938 and 1942, the period during which it appeared in the movies Sun Valley Serenade (1941) and Orchestra Wives (1942).

After serving in the Army during Second World War, Finegan worked for Tommy Dorsey and studied for two years with Stefan Wolpe, the avant-garde composer. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire for a further two years and during his time began corresponding with fellow arranger Eddie Sauter. When Sauter wrote Finegan a letter on the back of a rejection slip from a distinctly mediocre bandleader, Finegan replied by saying that if things were getting that bad, they'd better start their own band.

The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra was formed in 1952. With its unusual instrumentation, arrangements and harmonics it was unlike any other on the scene. Time magazine called it "the most original band heard in the United States in years", and such singles as the Doodletown Fifers and various reworkings of classical compositions made it into the Top 30. However, within five years, Sauter and Finegan were up to their eyes in debt. The orchestra disbanded in 1958.

Finegan returned to freelancing as an arranger, wrote music for commercials and worked as a teacher in the years that followed. He was revered by musicians who appreciated that he wrote his arrangements with individual players in mind.

Speaking last week, Warren Vache said: "Bill's writing was passionate, and innovative. His knowledge of the capabilities of the instruments and players he wrote for was encyclopedic. Yet with all that knowledge and all that creativity, he was more trusting of the musicians playing his music than most arrangers I've worked with".