| Harry Bluestone | |
|---|---|
Harry Bluestone playing his violin |
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| Background information | |
| Born | September 30, 1907 England |
| Origin | England |
| Died | December 22, 1992 (aged 85) Studio City, California |
| Occupations | Composer, Conductor, Music Producer |
| Instruments | Violin |
| Years active | 1913–1987 |
Harry Bluestone (September 30, 1907 - December 22, 1992)' was a British violinist who composed music for TV and Movie. He was prolific and worked mainly on composing with Emil Cadkin. Earlier on, he was a violinist and freelanced on radio in the 1930s with Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, and the Dorsey brothers. Some of his compositions were also featured on APM Music. He retired in 1987 and died of Tuberculosis in Studio City, California on December 23, 1992.
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Harry was born Harold B. Blostein in England on September 30, 1907 and apparently went to New York as a boy. He took up the violin at a young age, and the liner notes on his Artistry in Jazz album reveal “he performed the Bruch G-Minor Violin Concerto to critical acclaim when only 7 years old.” As a teenager, he travelled to Paris with a small jazz group to back up expatriate singer Josephine Baker. Harry graduated from the Institute of Musical Art (later renamed Juilliard), and freelanced on numerous radio programmes in the 1930s with the Dorsey Brothers, Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw. He played with Bix Beiderbeck, Bunny Berigan and Red Nichols (who had in his employ a future cartoon sound genius named Treg Brown).
Harry moved to Hollywood in 1935 with the Lennie Hayton orchestra, which had been known as the Ipana Troubadors on Fred Allen’s Show in New York, when it became the first orchestra on Your Hit Parade (eventually replaced in 1939 by the legendary Raymond Scott). Bluestone had his own 15-minute radio show, recorded for Brunswick and was hired by Paramount Studios as its concertmaster. He enlisted in the Air Force in 1942, rose to the rank of Master Sergeant and organised both the Army Air Force Orchestra and the Army Air Force Training Command Orchestra that replaced Glenn Miller, who went overseas to his eventual death. After the war, Harry set up his own orchestra which backed Jo Stafford and Dinah Shore. He also got a first taste of the music library business as production manager for Standard Transcriptions. Among his discoveries while recording in France (to get around Jimmy Petrillo’s union) was singer Robert Clary, who later co-starred on Hogan’s Heroes. Harry spent the rest of his life setting up various music publishing houses, writing and getting out his violin or his baton to work on albums by the Beach Boys, Peggy Lee and the Beatles (on Sgt. Pepper’s). He also wrote books in the ’80s on playing violin, guitar and trumpet.
Harry lived with his wife "Ellen Bluestone". Sadly, Harry died of Tuberculosis in 1992.
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