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".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article