Milt Raskin (January 27, 1916 – October 16, 1977) was an American jazz pianist, conductor and arranger.
Born Milton William Raskin in Boston, Massachusetts, he played saxophone as a child before switching to piano at age 11. In the 1930s he attended the New England Conservatory of Music. He worked on local Boston-area radio before moving to New York City in 1937, where he performed with Wingy Manone at the Famous Door and recorded with Ziggy Elman, whose Love is the sweetest thing (1939) is a good example of his early style.
He played in the big bands of Gene Krupa (1938-9, 1941-2), Teddy Powell (1939-40), Alvino Rey (1940), and Tommy Dorsey (1942-4), recording with all but Rey; he may be heard to advantage as a soloist on Dorsey's Well, Git it (1942). Raskin then moved to Los Angeles, where he recorded with Artie Shaw and Billie Holiday (both 1946), Woody Herman and Manone (both 1947), Sarah Vaughn (1951), Georgie Auld (1952), B.B. King (1959), Stan Kenton (1963, 1965), and others, but concentrated on work as a studio musician and musical director.
Like Drasnin, Wilson, and many of their contemporaries, Raskin spent most of his time creating good old Hollywood film music. He began playing piano in MGM studio orchestras. Eventually, he moved to the front of the orchestra, conducting orchestras recording soundtracks and incidental music for Disney and Columbia movies. He worked as a lyricist on Artistry in Voices and Brass, on which Stan Kenton and Pete Rugolo turned Rugolo's old instrumental hits for Kenton into vocal numbers.
Milt Raskin is best remembered among exotica fans for what he himself may have considered one of his less memorable efforts: the 1959 album “Exotic Percussion”, also released as “Kapu”, on the notorious Crown Records. Unlike many of Crown's releases, which packaged public domain performances or uncredited cuts from far-earlier sessions and packaged them to take advantage of whatever musical trend was getting sales at the moment, Exotic Percussion is a suite of Raskin originals, apparently recorded specifically for the release.
He was a regular among Capitol Records' house arrangers and conductors, and led ensembles backing such singers as Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole, Nancy Wilson, George Shearing and Vic Damone and occasionally wrote lyrics for pop songs. He also collaborated (usually without credit) with Bill Russo, Stan Kenton, Billy Strayhorn, Andre Previn, and other jazz and jazz-influenced arrangers, often handling the orchestration (writing the individual parts for the instruments called for by the arranger for each section of melody, harmony, and chorus).
He worked on numerous television series, including "Naked City" and "The Fugitive." He did get credited on occasion, as in his arrangements for the soundtracks of "The Agony and the Ecstacy" and "Lawrence of Arabia."
Raskin died 16 October 1977, Hollywood, California, age 61years.
(Edited from Wikipedia, Spaceagepop & Online Archive of California)