The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra was an American swing jazz band popular in the 1950s. The orchestra was led by

Eddie Sauter Edward Ernest Sauter (December 2, 1914 – April 21, 1981) was a composer and arranger during the swing era. Biography Sauter studied music at Columbia University and the Juilliard School. He began as a drummer and then played trumpet profession ...

and

Bill Finegan William James Finegan (April 3, 1917 – June 4, 2008) was an American jazz bandleader, pianist, arranger, and composer. He was an arranger in the Glenn Miller Orchestra in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Life and career Born in Newark, New Je ...

, who were both experienced

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...

arrangers. Sauter played mellophone, trumpet, and drums, and had attended

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

and

Juilliard The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most e ...

; Finegan had studied at the Paris Conservatory. They began recording together in 1952, using inventive arrangements that made use of a variety of unusual instruments, including many

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

l instruments as well as oddities like the

kazoo The kazoo is an American musical instrument that adds a "buzzing" timbral quality to a player's voice when the player vocalizes into it. It is a type of '' mirliton'' (which itself is a membranophone), one of a class of instruments which modif ...

and the beaten human chest. A June 7, 1952, article in the trade publication '' Billboard'' described the new group as "a creative band, which will combine dance music as well as mood interpretations." The group initially had a three-year contract with

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Ar ...

, with plans "for about 16 sides a year." Their first chart appearance was with " Doodletown Fifers", their version of a

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polic ...

tune called "Kingdom Coming and the Year of Jubilo". "

Nina Never Knew "Nina Never Knew" is a popular song with music by Louis Alter and lyrics by Milton Drake, published in 1952. Recordings that charted in 1952 were by the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra on RCA Victor Records (number 13 on the Billboard charts; firs ...

" (featuring vocalist Joe Mooney) and "The Moon is Blue" (with Sally Sweetland) soon followed on the charts. With the success of the singles, they put together a 21-member touring ensemble and began playing venues in 1953. Sweetland was the group's female vocalist, and Andy Roberts was the male vocalist. Because the group played in dance halls rather than concert venues, they encountered little success on the road, and quit touring in 1955 after having accrued much debt. As Sauter explained, "Being popular and famous didn't always mean that you could meet your weekly payroll for such a large band....large gaps in our schedule, due to cancelled dates and other problems, kept putting us into a deeper and deeper financial hole"--and it took seven years to fully discharge the unit's debts.Harniman, Ken. "The Eddie Sauter Story: Nyack Graduate Hit Musical Peak." Rockland County (NY) Journal-News, 12 August 1963. In March 1957, the pair disbanded the group, and Sauter moved to Germany; Finegan continued as an arranger. They reunited in the studio in 1959 to release a new album, ''Return of the Doodletown Fifers'', and to do

jingle A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meaning that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually ...

s for advertisers. After Sauter's death in 1981, Finegan revived the name Sauter-Finegan Orchestra for concerts in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

in the 1980s. "World Without Time," from "Adventures in Time" was chosen by host Richard Heffner as the theme music for '' The Open Mind''.

Discography

*''New Directions in Music'' (

, 1953) *''The Sound of the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra'' (RCA Victor, 1952) *''Inside Sauter-Finegan'' (RCA Victor, 1953) *''Concert Jazz'' (RCA Victor, 1955) *''Concerto for Jazz Band and Symphony Orchestra'' (RCA Victor, 1954) (with Fritz Reiner and the

Chicago Symphony Orchestra The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) was founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891. The ensemble makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival. The music director is Riccardo Muti, who began his tenu ...

) *''The Sons of Sauter-Finegan'' (RCA Victor, 1954) *''Adventure in Time'' (RCA Victor, 1956) *''Under Analysis'' (RCA Victor, 1956) *''Straight Down the Middle'' (RCA Victor, 1957) *''Memories of Goodman and Miller'' (RCA Victor, 1958) *''Return of the Doodletown Fifers'' (

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stu ...

, 1960) *''Pop Concert'' (

, 1960, or later)

References

* Sauter-Finegan Orchestraat

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

{{Authority control American jazz ensembles RCA Victor artists American experimental musical groups