Conniff, Ray

▪ 2003

      American arranger, composer, and bandleader (b. Nov. 6, 1916, Attleboro, Mass.—d. Oct. 12, 2002, Escondido, Calif.), became identified with easy listening pop. He began his career in the 1930s playing trombone in big bands and in the '50s did arrangements for a number of pop stars. He also experimented with the use of voices as instruments, and S' Wonderful (1956), the debut recording of the Ray Conniff Orchestra and Singers, with wordless vocals and spare orchestral accompaniment, was the first of a long string of hits. He won a Grammy Award in 1966 for “Somewhere My Love,” an adaptation of Maurice Jarre's “Lara's Theme” from the film Dr. Zhivago. In all he recorded more than 100 albums that sold in the tens of millions of copies and won numerous awards.

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