Matt Monro by Michele Monro

Author:Michele Monro [Monro, Michele]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Titan
Published: 2011-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Billy May started out playing trumpet in big bands like Charlie Barnet’s, but it was his talent as an arranger that was championed by Glenn Miller and Les Brown. He was hired as a staff arranger, first for the National Broadcasting Company, then for Capitol. It wasn’t long before Billy’s characteristic brisk tempos and intricate brass parts were being applied to mainline artists such as Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee, Bobby Darin, Nancy Wilson, Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney. One distinctive feature of his style was his repeated use of trumpet mute devices, another a saxophone glissando widely known as his ‘slurping saxes’.

Billy May and Matt Monro had a mutual-admiration society going. Each admired the other’s professionalism, musical approach and artistic flair, but the icing on the cake of their relationship was the great fun they shared on the sessions.

Matt had a very distinctive quality, it was similar to Sinatra and it was similar to Nat Cole, in the sense that the way they sang you knew all three of them were good musicians, in other words they had a good musical approach to things. Matt Monro was one of the finest guys I ever worked with; I mean I enjoyed him as a person and I enjoyed working with him. It was just one big laugh, the whole session, whether we were doing a sweet ballad or something like that. I just had a wonderful time with him. So you had a session like that and it would make up for all the garbage. — Billy May

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