Artie Kane,
Studio Pianist and Film-TV Composer, Dies at 93
Variety
By Jon
Burlingame
June 23,
2022
Artie Kane, Grammy-nominated
pianist and composer of film scores including “Looking for Mr. Goodbar” and
“Eyes of Laura Mars,” died Tuesday at his home on Whidbey Island, north of
Seattle, Wash. He was 93.
Kane
was widely considered one of the finest keyboard players in the history of
Hollywood. He played for every major composer during the 1960s and ’70s,
including John Williams (“The Poseidon Adventure”), Jerry Goldsmith
(“Chinatown”), Lalo Schifrin (“The Cincinnati Kid”), Henry Mancini (“Wait Until
Dark”), Michel Legrand (“The Thomas Crown Affair”), John Barry (“The Deep”),
Johnny Mandel (“The Americanization of Emily”), Elmer Bernstein (“McQ”) and
many others.
“Artie
was a brilliant musician, a dear friend and colleague, and a mentor to me,”
said fellow pianist Ralph Grierson. “Prior to him, studios would hire a
specialist for each style of music – cocktail piano, jazz, classical. He
changed all of that. Artie established a tradition that as a studio musician
you could play anything.”
Mike
Lang, a fellow keyboard player on many sessions, told
Variety: “It was
easy to see why so many people wanted him to be a part of their musical life.
His spontaneity, talent and unerring craft so identified him as a must-have on
composers’ and arrangers’ projects. Maybe the most important thing I learned
from Artie was how to ‘read’ the needs of each specific composer or situation,
how to understand what the best approach to take would be on each individual
project. He was equally generous to many throughout his amazing professional
life.”
Added
composer Charles Fox (“Love American Style”), who encouraged Kane’s composing
career in the 1970s: “Artie was the most brilliant pianist who played on so
many of my sessions. Before playing a note of music, he would just look at the
most difficult piano part, perhaps even a concerto-like solo, ask about the
nuances in the performance, and then play it masterfully right off the bat.”
Kane
began composing in the late 1960s, first for television (“Wonder Woman,”
“Barnaby Jones”) and then for films including two for director Richard Brooks
(“Looking for Mr. Goodbar” in 1977, “Wrong Is Right” in 1982) and one for Irvin
Kershner (1978’s “Eyes of Laura Mars”). Between features he wrote dozens of
series-TV scores (including “The Love Boat,” “Dynasty,” “Hotel,” “Matlock”) and
three of the “Gunsmoke” TV-movies starring James Arness.
Kane
launched another career in the 1990s: conducting for top composers. He
conducted more than 60 orchestral scores including several that were nominated
for Oscars, among them “Men in Black” for Danny Elfman, “The American
President” for Marc Shaiman and “My Best Friend’s Wedding” for James Newton
Howard.
Shaiman
told Variety: “Artie was the magic glue that kept the sessions
together, with precision and the driest of humor. He knew just what to say to
the musicians, and the composer, to get to the bottom of how best to make every
measure expressive and playable. For every week of scoring I ever lived
through, I owe it to Artie that I made it out with my music and sanity intact.”
Howard
called him “a remarkably talented pianist and wonderful collaborator whose
musical gifts were matched only by his unforgettable and hilarious
storytelling.”
He
was born in Columbus, Ohio, April 14, 1929. A child prodigy, he began playing
piano at the age of 3, won prizes and scholarships and performed on radio while
still in his teens. He studied at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and
spent eight years touring with the “Holiday on Ice” skating troupe, both as
pianist and conductor. In the late 1950s he moved to New York, where he worked
as a Broadway rehearsal pianist and performed in nightclubs.
Kane
moved to Los Angeles in 1960 and began playing piano in the studios. He also
performed on albums by Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Carmen McRae, Sarah Vaughan,
Bud Shank, Quincy Jones, Barbra Streisand and others.
With
Grierson, he received a 1975 Grammy nomination for “S’Wonderful,” a collection
of two-piano arrangements of George Gershwin songs and classical works. Henry
Mancini arranged and produced three additional albums spotlighting Kane’s
keyboard prowess in the early 1970s.
His
memoir, “Music to My Years: Life and Love Between the Notes,” was published in
2017. It won a gold medal in the non-fiction and music-entertainment category
at the annual Readers’ Favorite awards in Miami in 2019.
Kane
was married eight times, including to singer-actress Jaye P. Morgan, agent
Carol Faith and for the last 40 years, to JoAnn (Johnson) Kane, founder of
JoAnn Kane Music Service. She survives, along with his sons David Russell and
Adam Kane, and two grandsons.
KANE,
Artie (Aaron
Cohen)
Born:
4/14/1929,
Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A.
Died:
6/21/2022,
Whidbey Island, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.
Artie
Kane’s westerns – musician, score copyist conductor composer:
Mail
Order Bride – 1964 [musician piano]
The
Outrage – 1964 [musician piano]
7
Faces of Dr. Lao – 1964 [musician piano]
Stagecoach
– 1966 [musician piano]
Hombre
– 1967 [musician piano]
100
Rifles – 1969 [musician piano]
The
Undefeated – 1969 [musician piano]
The
Traveling Executioner – 1970 [musician piano]
Big
Jake – 1971 [musician piano]
Wild
Rovers – 1971 [musician piano]
Jeremiah
Johnson – 1972 [musician, keyboards piano]
When
Legends Die – 1972 [composer additional music]
Cahill
U.S. Marshal – 1973 [musician piano]
One
Little Indian – 1973 [musician piano]
Westworld
– 1973 [musician piano]
Breakheart
Pass – 1974 [musician piano]
The
Godchild (TV) – 1974 [musician piano]
Gunsmoke:
To the Last Man (TV) – 1992 [composer]
Gunsmoke:
The Long ride (TV) – 1993 [composer]
City
Slickers II: The Legend of Curly’s Gold – 1994 [conductor]
Wyatt
Earp – 1994 [score copyist]
Gunsmoke:
One Man’s Justice (TV) – 1994 [composer]
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