Don Sebesky

Don Sebesky was best known as house arranger for many of producer Creed Taylor's Verve, A&M, and CTI productions; he was the man whose orchestral backgrounds helped make artists like Wes Montgomery, Paul Desmond, Freddie Hubbard, and George Benson acceptable to audiences outside of jazz. He took some critical heat for this, but Sebesky's arrangements were usually among the classiest in his field, reflecting a solid knowledge of the orchestra and drawing variously from big-band jazz, rock, ethnic music, classical music of all eras, and even the avant-garde for ideas. He once cited Bartok as his favorite composer, but one also hears a lot of Stravinsky in his work. Sebesky started out professionally as a trombonist while still at the Manhattan School of Music, working with Kai Winding, Claude Thornhill, the Tommy Dorsey Band led by Warren Covington, Maynard Ferguson, and Stan Kenton. In 1960, he gave up the trombone to concentrate on arranging and conducting, eventually receiving the breakthrough assignment of Montgomery's Bumpin' album (1965). Some of the most attractive examples of his work for jazz headliners include Bumpin', Benson's The Shape of Things to Come, Desmond's From the Hot Afternoon, and Hubbard's First Light. He began to step out into the spotlight with the release of his all-star Giant Box, which was followed by sporadic further releases on CTI and GNP/Crescendo. He also wrote classical works and a book, The Contemporary Arranger (Port Washington, New York, 1975), as well as orchestrating scores for film, television, and Broadway. Don Sebesky died on April 29, 2023, at age 85. ~ Richard S. Ginell, Rovi