BOB FLORENCE
Genres: Big Band, Third Stream, Hard Bop • United States

American jazz pianist, born 20 May 1932 in Los Angeles; died 15 May 2008 in Los Angeles, USA. In 2000, he won the Grammy for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance. from discogs As a longtime staff arranger for Liberty Records, Bob Florence wrote some of the most innovative and challenging charts in postwar jazz -- in many respects a man out of time, he possessed a particular brilliance for large-ensemble arrangements in the tradition of Duke Ellington, although the commercial vogue for big-band jazz had long since passed. Born May 30, 1932, in Los Angeles, Florence was a child prodigy who took his first piano lesson at the age of three. He abandoned classical studies in favor of jazz and pop while attending Los Angeles City College, assembling a band with classmates and future studio aces Tommy Tedesco, Herb Geller, and Dennis Budimir. At a friend's suggestion, Florence shifted the group's practices to read more...