Famed Hollywood Session Musician Dies at 94 – Billboard

Gene Cipriano, the all the time busy woodwind participant who soloed on tenor sax for Tony Curtis in Some Like It Sizzling and recorded with everybody from Miles Davis, Rosemary Clooney and Frank Sinatra to Glen Campbell, Paul McCartney and Olivia Newton-John, has died. He was 94.

Cipriano died Nov. 12 of pure causes at his residence in Studio Metropolis, his son Paul advised The Hollywood Reporter.

Maybe probably the most recorded woodwind participant in present enterprise historical past, Cipriano performed soprano, alto, tenor, baritone and bass saxophones, all of the clarinets and flutes, the oboe and bass oboe, the piccolo and the English horn.

Affectionally often called “Cip,” the session musician carried out as a member of the Academy Awards Orchestra within the neighborhood of 60 instances since 1958. (On the 1977 present, he exchanged “yo’s” with Barbra Streisand, who had simply arrived on the podium after having received for “Evergreen.”) 

Cipriano on oboe is heard initially of Sinatra’s melancholy “It Was a Very Good 12 months,” and he carried out on a number of of Campbell’s early hits, together with “Wichita Lineman” and “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.”  

Like Campbell, he was an occasional member of The Wrecking Crew, the fabled set of studio musicians who recorded with the likes of The Seaside Boys, Jan & Dean, The Monkees, Nancy Sinatra and Sonny & Cher.

“It was a number of enjoyable as a result of a number of instances the composer would say to the rhythm part, ‘Consider one thing wild that might match this specific piece of music,’” Cipriano recalled in a 2019 interview for the web site Making Life Swing. “They’d consider one thing after which they’d advert lib and inform us what to play. Typically we’d make up music proper on the spot.”

Shortly after transferring from New York to California within the Fifties, Cipriano was employed by Henry Mancini to play flute on the brand new NBC crime sequence Peter Gunn. The pair then collaborated on CBS’ Mr. Fortunate and in movies together with The Days of Wine and Roses (1962), Hatari! (1962), Charade (1963) and The Hawaiians (1970).

Cipriano labored alongside Johnny Mandel on The Sandpiper (1965) and with Michel Legrand on The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) and was heard on West Facet Story (1961), Cleopatra (1963), The Americanization of Emily (1964), Level Clean (1967), The Wild Bunch (1969), The French Connection (1971), Marathon Man (1976), One From the Coronary heart (1981), The Karate Child (1984), Up (2009) and extra.

Born on July 6, 1928, in New Haven, Connecticut, Cipriano began taking clarinet classes from his father, Fred, who performed on Broadway and with the New Haven Symphony.

“He put a clarinet in my fingers once I was 8 years outdated,” he stated. “I started to take heed to Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, and I stated, ‘That’s what I wish to do.’”

As a junior in highschool, Cipriano landed a gig with Ted Fio Rito’s orchestra, the place he met trumpeter Doc Severinsen. After he completed college, he labored with Clooney and her sister Betty in The Tony Pastor Band, with pianist Mancini in The Tex Beneke Band and with singer Frances Irvin, his soon-to-be spouse, within the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra.

After he relocated to California, Mancini gave him his massive break on Peter Gunn. “That obtained me began as a result of it grew to become such a scorching merchandise after which all the opposite leaders stated, ‘Effectively, get me these guys who performed with Henry Mancini,’” he famous in one other 2019 interview.

Cipriano additionally carried out on Elvis Presley’s NBC comeback particular in 1968. Over time, he recorded with Shorty Rogers, Harry Nilsson, Neil Diamond, Thelonious Monk, Elton John, Frank Zappa, Gerry Mulligan, Helen Reddy, Barry Manilow and Seth MacFarlane. He additionally performed on many Emmy and Grammy telecasts.

In 2006, Cipriano recorded his personal CD, First Time Out, a set of jazz tunes.

Along with his son Paul, survivors embody his different youngsters, Genie, Suzanne and Fred; grandchildren Grant and Alicia; great-grandchildren Natalie and Emily; and sister Marie.

His spouse of 43 years, Frances, died in 1996. 4 years later, Cipriano met singer Catherine “Cat” Conner, and so they carried out throughout Los Angeles in a small band. She cared for him till his loss of life.

This text initially appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.