Stan Freeman

Although he only released a handful of recordings of his own, Stan Freeman was a near-omnipresent fixture on the New York jazz scene as a soloist, accompanist, and session musician for much of the 1950's and early '60s. Additionally, he attracted attention as a composer, comic writer, and raconteur, and also served as an arranger from the 1960's thru the 1980's for Marlene Dietrich and Michael Feinstein. And for a time in the early 1950's, he helped spearhead a momentary and unexpected revival of the harpsichord as a popular instrument. Born in Waterbury, CT, in 1920, Stan Freeman studied classical piano and later graduated from the University of Hartford. He played in Glenn Miller's U.S. Army Air Force Band during World War II and moved on to Tex Beneke's band after the war. He recorded duets with pianist Cy Walker, in addition to recording with Lee Wiley and Mabel Mercer as an accompanist. During the early '50s, he became a successful nightclub entertainer in his own right, as much for his comical asides and commentary as his piano playing. Freeman's first taste of recognition outside of the professional music world came in 1951 when he played a session with Rosemary Clooney where an unusual novelty record was cut -- the result, "Come On-A My House," was an international smash and a career-maker for Clooney, and Freeman's accompaniment on the harpsichord made him into enough of a celebrity that Columbia Records released an album of his work entitled Come On-A Stan's House that same year. The harpsichord became a particular specialty of his over the next few years and Freeman brought the instrument to the music of Percy Faith, among other band leaders, on various recordings during the first half of the 1950's. During the 1960's, he cut one album, Fascination, for Enoch Light's Project 3 label and kept busy as an accompanist. He became the successor to Burt Bacharach as Marlene Dietrich's musical director and collaborated in the composing of a pair of Broadway musicals. He was a favorite composer of special musical material for television as well, particularly for Carol Burnett and Mary Tyler Moore, and won an Emmy Award for his work as composer of "Hi-Hat," a Fred Astaire parody that was done with Burnett. His activities scarcely slackened in the 1970's and the 1980's, when he became an arranger for Michael Feinstein. He also indulged his lifelong admiration for George Gershwin and his interpreter Oscar Levant, writing a tribute to Levant, a well-known raconteur as well as musician, entitled "At Wit's End." As late as 1997, when he was in his late eighties, Freeman took on the new role of theatrical performer (as well as being the music director) in an off-Broadway revue entitled Secrets Every Smart Traveler Should Know.
© Bruce Eder /TiVo