Name Harvey Brooks Music director The Duke Is Tops | Role Film Score Composer | |
Died June 17, 1968, Los Angeles, California, United States | ||
Harvey Oliver Brooks (17 February 1899, in Philadelphia – 17 June 1968, in Los Angeles) was an American pianist and composer. He is the first black American to have written a complete score for a major motion picture: Mae West's film I'm No Angel (1933).
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Career
Brooks toured and recorded with Mamie Smith in the early 1920s, then settled in California. Beginning 1923, he and Paul Howard co-led the Quality Four, a quartet with vocalist named after the Quality Cafe at 12th and Central in Los Angeles. It members were
Henry "Tin Can" Allen (drums)Harvey O. Brooks (piano)Jessie Derrick (vocals)Leon H. Herriford (1894–1937) (clarinet, alto saxophone)Paul Howard (clarinet, tenor sax)Brooks recorded with the Quality Four and Howard’s Quality Serenaders. He remained a member of both until 1930. Brooks was the music director for Les Hite’s orchestra from 1931 to 1935. In this role, he worked for Hollywood film studios, composing soundtrack music. Brooks later worked as a leader of his own band, played in Kid Ory’s band (from 1952), and performed and recorded with Teddy Buckner (1955–1956) and Joe Darensbourg (1957–1960). Beginning 1961, he became a member of the Young Men of New Orleans (dixieland jazz group), which he led in the last year of his life.
Selected discography
Filmography
From the 1933 film, I'm No Angel