Ray Ellis

The six-decade career of producer, arranger, and composer Ray Ellis spans from Billie Vacation to Barbra Streisand to Emmylou Harris. He also loved great achievement in television, composing practically all of the backdrop music for computer animation studio room Filmation from 1968 to 1982. Given birth to July 28, 1923, in Philadelphia, Ellis began monitoring saxophone at age group 12, mastering all the reed devices within 3 years. While stationed at Fort Knox during Globe Battle II, he dealt with arranging duties using the U.S. Military Band, later on recalling: “That is where I acquired my musical education. I had been placed into the music group and the males couldn’t move away from my plans. Even easily wrote a poor one, I couldn’t obtain fired.” Following the battle Ellis came back to Philadelphia to function in radio, afterwards fronting a live jazz display on local tv place WCAU. He also performed tenor sax behind bandleaders Gene Krupa and Paul Whiteman before relocating to NEW YORK in 1954. Columbia Information manufacturer Mitch Miller employed Ellis as an employee arranger the next season, where he helped on some pop smashes like the Four Lads’ “Sitting on the Part” and Johnny Mathis’ “A PARTICULAR Smile.” Especially, Ellis and his orchestra backed jazz icon Vacation on her questionable 1958 LP Female in Silk: “I’d say that one of the most psychological minute was her hearing the playback of ‘I’m a Fool to Wish You.’ There have been tears in her eye,” Ellis recounted 40 years afterwards. “Directly after we completed the record I went in to the control area and paid attention to all the will take. I have to admit I used to be disappointed with her functionality, but I used to be just hearing musically rather than psychologically. It wasn’t until I noticed the final combine a couple weeks later which i understood how great her functionality actually was.” Ellis was appointed A&R movie director at MGM Information in 1959, overseeing strikes like Connie Francis’ “Where in fact the Guys Are” and Sarah Vaughan’s “Damaged Hearted Melody.” He also headlined his very own easy hearing LPs, including Ellis in Wonderland and Let’s Move away from EVERYTHING. Ellis transformed musical direction throughout a stint at Atlantic Information under renowned R&B manufacturer Jerry Wexler, briefly time for Columbia long more than enough to set up Streisand’s 1964 work The Third Record. After relocating to LA during the middle-’60s, Ellis shifted his concentrate to tv: frequently using wife Yvette Blais’ name being a pseudonym, he constructed for Filmation productions spanning in the Archie Present to Fantastic Voyage towards the Hardy Boys, rating a large number of cartoons across his 14-yr tenure using the studio room. He still approved the occasional studio room gig, nevertheless, and in 1970 created nation chanteuse Emmylou Harris’ debut, Gliding Parrot. In pension, Ellis spearheaded several fundraising attempts for the Ojai Music Event. He passed away of problems from melanoma at his Encino house on Oct 27, 2008.