Photo above: Eddie Sauter conducting the Night Gallery orchestra, Photographer: Pete Christlieb, Sauter family archive.
This story of Eddie Sauter's music and career would never have been possible without the comprehensive thesis written by Alex Chilowicz, then a masters student at Rutgers University in New Jersey. His diligence uncovering bountiful resources about Sauter's life and music including interviews with the composer, his wife and son Greg, access to archives.
Without Alex's portrait of Eddie Sauter and the music industry of his times, this site, dedicated to Sauter's legacy, would not have been possible. In Alex's words...
"[The thesis] attempts to provide a thorough overview of the arranger's career through a narrative supplemented by anecdotes, excerpts from interviews, historical documents, and a moderate amount of musical analysis. As the thesis was approaching its final stages, several interviews with key figures in Sauter's life — his wife, Bill Finegan, members of the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, Chris Griffin, Ray McKinley, and others — were discovered on cassette in the library of Queensborough Community College. The information contained in these never-before-heard interviews was incorporated into this thesis."
Saxophonist Alex Chilowicz in rehearsal.
Additional background on Sauter comes from Jeff Sultanof, author of Experiencing Big Band Music: A Listener's Companion and one of the editors of 12 historic Sauter charts for ejazzlines.com.
Thanks to Mike Zirpolo, swingandbeyond.com, for valuable feedback on some of the photography on the Big Bands section of this site.
Page header: Eddie Sauter, Photographer: Pete Christlieb, Sauter family archive.
Assorted album covers, Sauter family collection.
Image credit for Milk and Honey Album cover: Link
Night Gallery image from DVD, Sauter family collection.
Red Norvo
Red Norvo band - https://swingandbeyond.com/2018/09/22/remember-1937-red-norvo-and-1970-billy-may-and-the-swing-era-orchestra/
Page header: Red Norvo band from the Frank Driggs Collection, Photographer: Frank Driggs.
Artist's drawing of Norvo's Degan vibraphone.
Benny Goodman
Page Header: Young Sauter working on a score, Sauter family archive.
Benny Goodman Album cover - Benny Goodman presents arrangements by Eddie Sauter. Columbia JGL523.
Dorsey, Herman, Shaw
Page header: Artie Shaw Band, https://swingandbeyond.com/2021/09/13/september-song-1945-artie-shaw-ray-conniff-and-1960-ella-fitzgerald/
Woody Herman publicity photo: General Artists Corporation-management, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Artie Shaw album cover - The Complete Artie Shaw, RCA Bluebird 1981 axm2-5580
Ray McKinley
Page header: Ray McKinley band - excerpt from album cover Ray McKinley and his Orchestra featuring the arrangements of Eddie Sauter, Golden Era Records LP15030
Ray McKinley, Eddie Sauter, and (Robert) Dean Kincaide, Hotel Commodore, Century Room, New York, N.Y., ca. Jan. 1947 - William P. Gottlieb Collection (Library of Congress) - https://picryl.com/media/portrait-of-ray-mckinley-eddie-sauter-and-robert-dean-kincaide-hotel-commodore
Origins
Header photo: S-F band at the Blue Note, Chicago, circa 1953, Sauter family archive.
Metronome Cover March 1953 - https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/1953-march-metronome-magazine-jazz-sauter-finegan
The Music
Header photo: Sauter-Finegan band at the Palladium, Hollywood, circa 1954 Sauter family archive.
Eddie Sauter at the microphone Café Rouge, Hotel Statler (formerly Hotel Pennsylvania), New York City, Thanksgiving 1954, Sauter family archive.
The Band
Header photo: S-F Band circa 1955, Sauter family archive.
Irv Dinkin - Library of Congress, William P. Gottlieb Collection; William Alexander - University of Missouri Digital Libraries; Dave Kapp - Wikipedia/Library of Congress, Music Division
Band members listening to a session playback at the Manhattan Center, Sauter family archive.
On Tour
Header photo collage: Newspaper review, Time Magazine, August 17, 1953, Bandstand photos, Sauter family archive.
Film footage by Stanley Meyers of S-F band boarding tour bus, Allentown, PA, circa 1953, Sauter family collection
End of an Era
Header photo collage: Sauter Finegan record covers, Sauter family collection.
Sauter and Finegan in evening dress - excerpt from album cover "Sauter-Finegan Orchestra Concert Jazz" RCA Victor LPM-1051, Sauter family collection.
Times Square, New York City in the 1960s — Vintage postcard, Photographer: A. Devaney, Publisher: Alfred Manzzer,Inc.
It's a Bird… It's a Plane… It's Superman Cast Album LP, Columbia KOL 6570, Sauter family collection.
1776 Broadway Cast Album LP, Columbia BOS 3310, Sauter family collection.
Image from movie trailer for Mickey One, https://www.tcm.com/video/236214/mickey-one-movie-clip-opening (with Sauter-Getz sound track).
Poster from the movie, IMDB https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059447/.
Image of Rod Serling from the third season of Night Gallery.
Elizabeth Hartman in "Dark Boy" NBC Night Gallery website.
Header photo: Inside album photo from LP Focus. Photographer: David B. Hecht, Sauter family collection.
Focus album cover. Photographer: Peter Turner, Sauter family collection.
Header photo: Tanglewood Shed, 1960, Heinz Weissenstein, photographer (Whitestone Photo) from BSO Archive.
Album cover: Leonard Bernstein "The Joy of Christmas".
Album cover: New York Saxophone Quartet.
Quote: "Blue" Gene Tyranny on Saxophone Quartet #1 for allmusic.com.
Sauter conducting NightGallery in the 1970s, Sauter family archive.
Six Year old Sauter, Sauter family archive.
Sauter working on a score for Goodman, Sauter family archive.
Sauter and Ray McKinley, LaBudde Special Collections, UMKC University Libraries
Sauter working on a score for Night Gallery, Photographer: Pete Christlieb, Sauter family archive.
Photo of Sauter for Sauter-Finegan Orchestra publicity , Sauter family archive.