Was Henry Mancini an Italian jazzer?

Answer 1

In a way, yes he was. He's not best known as either Italian or a jazz musician but his passion was jazz and swing which we can hear clearly in his works such as The Pink Panther and Baby Elephant Walk.

Henry Mancini was born in Ohio in 1924 and grew up in Pennsylvania. His parents immigrated from Italy but he was American born.

He attended the Juilliard School in NYC and he served in the US Army in WWII.

His early work was with the post-war big band of Glenn Miller (by Tex Beneke) as pianist and as an arranger (so, technically, we could call him both ethnically Italian and a jazz musician).

His real fame came as a movie composer in the 50s and 60s at Universal Studios. His work (Moon River, Pink Panther, Peter Gunn, Baby Elephant Walk...) had the same level of fame then that John William's work had in the 80's and 90's (Star Wars, Olympic Themes, Jaws, etc...)

He recorded for RCA Victor (8 gold albums) and conducted many orchestras other than his own. He also toured regularly.

Maestro Mancini died of pancreatic cancer at home in Beverly Hills at age 70 in 1994.

Answer 2

No. He was American, and I think his style might have been jazz. name's Italian. He was from here. I think he was born here. I'm not even sure he's not alive, still.