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Vincent Falcone Trio
WARM HEART … COOL HANDS
A Tribute To My Friend, Harry
Sukman
Two talented men of music whose
lives, though born and raised in different cities at different
times, were parallel in many ways. Harry Sukman and Vincent
Falcone had one great and talented man in common who eventually
brought them together,
Mr. Frank Sinatra.
Harry Sukman
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Harry Sukman wins the
Academy Award |
Harry
Sukman was born in Chicago, Illinois.
He began studying
classical piano at the age of four. He revealed himself a music
prodigy as a child and attended the Metropolitan College of Music
before he was in his teens. His teachers included the great
Rudolph Ganz (piano) and Felix Borowski (theory, composition).
At twelve years old, Sukman served
as an accompanist, to some of the finest violinists and opera
singers and toured with them throughout the country. In his
twenties, he was employed as a radio conductor and pianist in
Chicago.
In
1946, Harry Sukman moved to Hollywood, where he was hired as pianist
by the music department at Paramount Pictures. Paramount studio’s
music director, Victor Young, took him under his wing and introduced him to the art of
film scoring. Young and Sukman were childhood friends and like
brothers stemming back to their days in Chicago. Playing piano for
Young’s scoring sessions and for great film composers such as;
Dimitri Tiomkin, and Max Steiner, Harry Sukman played piano for
recording sessions with Victor Young and his orchestra as well as
for well-known singers such as Frank Sinatra. Hersh was the nickname given to
Harry Sukman by his friend Victor Young. Sinatra picked up on the
name and continued to call him by that nickname throughout their
association.
Over the years, Sukman was given
the opportunity to compose music for numerous independent motion
pictures. He broke into the big time in 1960, when he served as
music director/composer for George Cukor And Charles Vidor’s “Song
Without End” A drama based on the life of composer/pianist Franz
Liszt. For this dramatic score, Harry Sukman received an Academy
Award.
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Frank Sinatra with
Harry Sukman in 1962 |
After receiving the Oscar for “Song
Without End,” he subsequently was nominated for the films “Fanny”
and for “The Singing Nun.” He received Emmy and Golden Globe
nominations for numerous television series including “Dr.
Kildare”, “Bonanza”, and “The High Chaparral” and movies of the
week. In 1967, along with being asked to arrange themes for a new
album he was going to record conducting the orchestra, Frank
Sinatra asked Hersh to compose the score for his film; “The Naked
Runner.”Though the film’s musical theme was written as a
concerto, Sinatra asked Sukman to arrange the piece into a song. He gave it its
song title and recorded it. “You Are There” performed in trio with a
great jazz arrangement, is one of the selections on this CD.
Frank
Sinatra asked Harry Sukman to write a few arrangements for personal
appearances with piano accompaniment only. He sent his musical
director/pianist Vincent Falcone to the home of his friend Harry Sukman
(Hersh) to go over the arrangements. This special meeting and those
that followed, were the beginning of a beautiful friendship between two
fine musicians and two even finer men.
Vincent Falcone
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Frank Sinatra with
Vincent Falcone
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Vincent Falcone was born in
Syracuse New York. He began studying classical piano at the age of
three. He was engaged in classical training at Syracuse
University.
Mr. Falcone traveled extensively
throughout Europe with various Jazz groups. Upon returning to the
United States he spent several years furthering his musical
studies as well as performing in the upstate New York area. In
1970 Mr. Falcone relocated to Las Vegas, where he still resides.
He became Caesars Palace’s house pianist, and while there was
heard by Frank Sinatra.
He was associated with Frank Sinatra for
several years as pianist initially,
and then as both pianist and conductor. Mr. Falcone was music director for the
inaugural gala for president Ronald Reagan. Mr. Sinatra who loved
to conduct the orchestra, would sometimes feature the piano
artistry of Mr. Falcone while he conducted. He toured with
Mr. Sinatra into the early '90s.
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Vincent Falcone
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Mr.
Falcone continues to work with artists the likes of: Tony Bennett,
Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Jack Jones, Andy Williams, Joe Piscopo.
He has appeared with numerous jazz artists as: Steve Gadd, Bobby Shew,
The Condoli Brothers, Terry Gibbs, Jack Sheldon and many more including
Joe LaBarbera and Tom Warrington both of whom are featured on this CD.
In 2005, Mr. Falcone had his first
book published by Hal Leonard Publishing Co. entitled “Frankly
Just Between Us.” The book tells of his many experiences with
Frank Sinatra and many of the other artists with whom he has
worked.
Susan McCray
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Susan with her father,
Harry Sukman |
Harry Sukman’s daughter, casting
director, internet radio host, and author, Susan McCray, asked
Vincent Falcone to arrange and play in trio, the music of her
father for a CD she wanted to produce. He responded; “It would be
my honor.”
He told Susan, one of the most
important things in working on this tribute, will be to make
certain the arrangements he was about to write, would not hurt the
integrity of the original compositions. Ms. McCray commented her father
would have been very proud and quite humbled to receive such a
loving tribute from his friend.
When listening to the piano
artistry of Vincent Falcone, Harry Sukman once asked:“Where the heck does Vinnie find
those great chords?”
Susan McCray feels the title she
gave this CD says it all:
Warm Heart … Cool Hands
(A Tribute To My Friend Harry
Sukman)
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