Bob Russell
b. 1914, Passaic, New Jersey, USA.
né: Sidney Keith Russell
Overview
Lyricist Bob Russell was most active during the 1940's and 1950's. In addition to his 'Tin Pan Alley' songs, he also wrote some for the Hollywood films.

Among his best-known hits are:
1941 "Frenesi" and "Maria Elena"
1943 "Don't Get Around Much Anymore"
1947 "Ballerina"

Russell is a member of the Songwriters' Hall of Fame.

   Henry Russell
b. Dec. 24, 1812, Sheerness, England
d. Dec. 8, 1900, London, England.
Born in England, music was this composer's whole life. He was a boy singer in his native England, and as a youth, traveled to Milan and to Bologna, Italy, for further musical studies. Among his teachers was the celebrated composer, Vincenzo Bellini. He was friends with Meyerbeer during a brief stay in Paris, France. Returning to England, he couldn't earn a living through his music, so he emigrated to Canada. Unable to find a living in Canada ("they weren't interested in culture"), he emigrated to Rochester, NY in 1833, where he found work as the organist of the First Presbyterian Church. He remained with the church for eight years.

It was in America, that Russell began to compose ballads. The year 1837 saw one of his most famous ballads "Woodsman, Spare That Tree" published. Other of his songs at this time included:
1837
       "The Indian Hunter"
1838
       "A Life On The Ocean Wave", in 1899, the British Royal Marines, made this their official song.
1840
       "The Old Arm Chair", this may be the original 'Mammy' song.

Other songs are:
       "The Old Spinning Wheel"
       "The Old Family Clock"
       "The Old Bell'
       "The Old Sexton"
       "That Old Gang of Mine:
       "The Gambler's Wife"
       "The Ship On Fire"
       "The Dream of the Reveller"
       "The Maniac"

Upon settling in New York City, Russell and some of his English friends formed a vocal group that toured the east coast, and inland too. As a result of the success of this group, Russell started a solo career of his own, singing his own songs on stage to his own piano accompaniment.

Russell's two sons are quite famous in the English musical tradition. One son, Henry Russell, managed the Covent Garden Opera Company, and also the Boston Opera Comapany, in the U. S. The other son was Sir Landon Ronald, one of the eminent orchestral conductors in English history.

Henry Russell returned to his native England in 1841. He remained active in music until his retirment in 1865. He died in London in 1900, age 88.

   Miklos Rozsa
b. Apr. 18, 1907, Budapest; d. July 27, 1995
One of the all-time great film composers, Rozsa's career began in Leipzig, Germany, and carried him on to Paris, France, to London, England, and finally to Hollywood, California. He began violin studies at age 5, and in 1926 (age 18), entered the Leipzig Conservatory, where, in 1929, his first concerto was heard. He relocated to Paris, France and in 1931, both his 'Symphony and Serenade for Small Orchestra', and 'Variations on a Hungarian Peasant Song' were debuted. He then settled in London, England, - a move that would set the course for the remainder of his life. He composed the Ballet 'Hungaria', but more importantly, he met another Hungarian, -film producer Alexander Korda who gave him his first film score commission, 1937s 'Knight Without Armour'. In 1940, while he and Korda were working on the film 'The Thief of Bagdad', Rozsa moved to Hollywood, CA, USA, where he would remain working for the next 4 decades. His score for Thief of Bagdad would earn him the first of many Academy Award nominations. Hollywood used his full-bodied orchestrations, in the European Romantic tradition, in almost every type of film from intense melodramas, to lavish spectacles, to film noir. Curiously, while much of his greatest work was for the films, his feelings about composing in Hollywood, are best summed up in his own words ".... (I) never went near the studio except when it was absolutely necessary". It was Rosza's wonderful work that began the vogue for recorded film scores, and he has remained the most recorded of all film composers.

A small list of his film credits would include:
1937: Knight Without Armor (For Alexander Korda in England)
1941: Lydia and Sundown (1941 An Academy Award Nominee)
1941: That Hamilton Woman
1942: Jungle Book (1942 An Academy Award Nominee)
1943: The Woman of the Town (1943 An Academy Award Nominee)
1943: Five Graves to Cairo
1943: Sahara
1944: Double Indemnity (1944)
1945: The Lost Weekend
1945: Spellbound (won Rozsa Academy Award. Pioneered use of a Theremin. Rosza thought his score for Spellbound was one of his best works. He is widely quoted as saying "(director) Alfred Hitchcock didn't like the music - said it got in the way of his direction. I never saw him since."
1945: A Song to Remember (Academy Award Nominee)
1946: The Killers (Academy Award Nominee) The resturant shootout scene toward the end of this film, uses what later became the now famous "dum de dum dum" theme of the 'Dragnet' TV show.
1946: The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
1947: A Double Life (Rozsa won Academy Award)
1947: Brute Force; The Macomber Affair
1949: Madame Bovary; Criss Cross; Adam's Rib
1950: The Asphalt Jungle
1951: Quo Vadis? (Academy Award Nominee)
1952: Ivanhoe (Academy Award Nominee)
1952: Plymouth Adventure
1953: Julius Caesar (Academy Award Nominee)
1953: Knights of the Round Table
1956: Lust for Life
1959: The World
1959: Ben-Hur (Rozsa won Academy Award)
1959: The Flesh and the Devil
1961: King of Kings
1961: El Cid (Oscar nominee for Best Score and Song)
1963: Sodom and Gomorrah
1963: The V.I.P.s
1970: The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
1977: Providence
1979: Fedora; Time After Time; Last Embrace
1981: Eye of the Needle
1982: Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (His last full score.)

   Rafael Rossi
né: Rafael Rossa
Bandoneonist, composer and leader.
b: Dec. 28, 1896, Mercedes, Argentina d: Dec. 24, 1982, Bs. As., Argentina
Birth date is that which Rossi himself stated in an interview with the magazine "El tango 100 años de historia" (Editorial Perfil)
Here's a photo of one of the Cuarteto Rafael Rossi groups. (This one with One Violin and One Flute, instead of his usual two Violins and piano.) Rossi is interesting due to the fact that unlike many other men who were most famous for their bandleading, or singing, or playing, -Rossi is most famous for his Tango compositions, and not so much for his orchestra. As a player, his style was quite simple. But his compositions established him as one of the definitive Tango composers.

As a young man, growing up in the town of Mercedes, he had often heard Juan "Pacho" Maglio's orchestra playing at a local cafe. Rossi soon became enamored of the Bandoneon. In 1912, he and a friend left their hometown of Mercedes and went to live in Buenos Aires (about 80 kilometers away), where they found work as house painters. The money that Rossi earned allowed him to enroll at the Conservatory run by don José De Caro, Julio de Caro's father, In 1914, WW1 began and Rossi returned to his home in Mercedes, where he continued to play his bandoneon.

In late 1914, Rossi formed a Duo with guitarist Pedro Lafourcade and they commenced their first tour of Argentina. By the time the tour ended in Vedia, they were playing virtually just for Tips, and had left a trail of unpaid hotel bills behind them.

In Vedia, the duo settled and their finances slowly improved. In 1915, they relocated to Rufino (province of Santa Fe). They teamed with Ágel Danesi, a local bandoneonist, who advised them to play in Huinca Renancó (province of Códoba). It was a successful move for the Trio were now earning seventy pesos a month, plus house, food, maté and kerosene. Then, guitarist Lafourcade split and put together his own trio, with Roque del Cagneo and Timoteo Palacios.

When Rossi's group disbanded, he went to Del Campillo, where he lined up another trio that toured the towns in the provinces of Córdoba and Santa Fe, until he finally returned to his home in Mercedes,to comply with the military service.

Subsequently, he and another guitarist from Mercedes formed a new duo and began to tour the towns in the province of Buenos Aires. When he crossed into Santa Fe province, Rossi sent for the violinist Udelino Toranzo. When this trio played again in Junín, they met with Rossi's hero Juan "Pacho" Maglio, the man who had inspired him to play the bandoneon. Rossi had sent Maglio one of his early Tango compositions, (entitled: "Pacho"). That meeting and that composition gained Rossi an invitation to join Maglio's orchestra. So, he disbanded his trio and went on tour with "Pacho".

In 1919, the tour ended, and Rossi settled in Buenos Aires where he teamed with pianist and composer José Martinez, then a fairly important Tango figure.

They worked together briefly, and shortly after this Rossi formed his first important quartet, with himself on bandoneon, the violinists Fernando Franco and Emilio De Caro and the pianist Francisco De Caro. This outfit didn't last too long. In 1920, Rossi joined with Francisco Canaro and Roberto Firpo big orchestra playing for Carnival Balls and other such affairs. From 1920 to 1935 he played in Francisco Canaro's orchestra, and occasionlly toured the provinces with some small outfits he would put together featuring pianist Eduardo Pereyra (El Chón) and violinist Alberto Castellanos.

In 1916, he had composed his first Tango "Don Leandro", which was followed by the abovementioned "Pacho", "A Horacio", "La Ca&numl;ada", "Estás Triste", "Renacimiento", and "Ca&numl;averal", plus others. In 1920, he was delivering a series of his works to Gardel, whom he had met through Pacho, and Gardel immediately recorded some of them.

Curiously, Rossi recorded mostly Argentine Folk songs for the Odeon label. This was because Roberto Firpo had signed an exclusive contract with the Max Glcksmann company, to record Tangos. And so, Rossi's orchestra was pigeonholed to cut folk pieces. Later, with his famous "Conjunto Chacarero", he recorded several Tangos. On almost all occasions his vocalists were Herminia Velich and the Casadei Brothers.

It is somewhat difficult to list all of Rossi's Tango Compositions because a such a list would be very large, and because musicologists are always discovering new songs written by this lavish composer. Some of his works are:
  "Ave Cantora", lyric by Eugenio Cárdenas
  "La Milonga", lyric by Eugenio Cárdenas
  "Por el Llano", lyric by Eugenio Cárdenas
  "Fiesta Criolla", lyric by Eugenio Cárdenas
  "Perdonada", lyric by Eugenio Cárdenas
  "Senda Florida"
  "Ebrio", lyric by José Rial
  "Primero Yo", lyric by José Rial
  "Como Abrazado a un Rencor", with lyric by the journalist Antonio Podest�
  "Corazoncito", lyric by José Rial
  "Sos de Chiclana", with Julio Navarrine lyric,
  "Recordándote",
  "Buena Pilcha", with José Rial
  "Ponete paquete", with José Rial
  "De Corazón a Corazó", with José Rial
  "Lo que Pide el Corazón", with José Rial .
  "Cuando Tallan los Recuerdos", With Enrique Cadicamo (a beautiful tango)
  "Jueves", an instrumental Tango co-composed with With Udelino Toranzo

And other songs that were not Tangos, such as:
  "Rosas de Abril", lyrics by Eugenio Cárdenas (a Waltz)
  "Canaveral", (a Samba)
  "Como las Margaritas" (an Estilo)
  "La Pastelera", (a Ranchera)