 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Composer Harry Max Geller aka Harry Geller was born June 7, 1913 and passed away February 15, 2008.
Canadian-born Harry Geller was not related to New York-born writer Bruce Geller aka the creator of "Mission: Impossible". He was a jazz trumpeteer, a band leader (Harry Geller and his Orchestra) on records, a conductor, an arranger, a composer at the radio and television. In the 1960's, he was known as the collaborator of CBS music department head and composer Morton Stevens at series like "Gunsmoke", "The Wild Wild West" and "Hawaii Five-O". He also worked for producer Irwin Allen: "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" and "Lands of the Giants".
For the series "The Wild Wild West", his work was divided in two categories: the exotic and ethnic scores as "The Night the Dragon Screamed" (Asian) and "The Night of the Egyptian Queen" (Middle East) and the rhythmic scores as "The Night of the Returning Dead" (co-composed with Morton Stevens) and "The Night of the Bottomless Pit" and some jazzy aspects of "The Night of the Egyptian Queen". In the line of the same "The Night of the Egyptian Queen", Geller wrote a single "Mission: Impossible" score entitled "The Innocent" which integrated Middle East sound elements but in the discreet and minimalistic mold of the series. Moreover, Geller wrote the music for two espionage movies made for ABC television: "The Challenge" (1970), starring Darren McGavin and Sam Elliott, and "Dead Man on The Run" (1975), written by Ken Pettus, starring Peter Graves and Pernell Roberts.
Favourite works:
*Television Series
THE WILD WILD WEST
(season 1)
"The Night the Dragon Screamed"
(season 2)
"The Night of the Returning Dead" (co-composed)
"The Night of the Bottomless Pit"
"The Night of the Deadly Blossom" (fragments)
(season 4)
"The Night of the Egyptian Queen"
VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA
(season 4)
“The Deadly Dolls”
“Sealed Orders”
“Savage Jungle”
“The Death Clock”
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE
(season 5)
"The Innocent"
HAWAII FIVE-O
(season 1)
"King Of The Hill"
"Once Upon A Time, Part I & II"
(season 2)
"To Hell With Babe Ruth"
"Blind Tiger"
(season 3)
"Time and Memories"
(season 4)
"Nine, Ten--You're Dead"
(season 6)
"Killer at Sea"
(season 7)
"I'll Kill 'Em Again"
"Small Witness, Large Crime"
(season 8)
"Wooden Model Of A Rat"
Watch a photomontage of Harry Geller’s music credits for the four seasons of “The Wild Wild West”:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
QUESTIONS
1. Tell me when did you first discover the music of Harry Geller?
2. What are your favourite scores?
3. What Harry Geller CD releases do you wish in the future?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hmmm. I'm aware of him of course, but I'm not really familiar with his music. I suppose he is less remembered than some of his cohorts.
I don't think I could answer any of your questions in this case, Stefan.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I'm Harry's son, and was present at a great many recording sessions he did at Mercury and RCA, where he was A&R man on the West Coast. His NEW YORK album - original compositions - for RCA is a knockout, as are some of the cuts from MUSIC FOR CAT DANCERS, a jazz album also from RCA. His tv scores - particularly the later ones - are immensely bizarre, spectacularly played, and always a great pleasure...especially since a good deal of the time they only deal with the action superficially, but he does his own thing, with great musicians like Bob Cooper, Abe Most, Erno Neufeld, Mike Melvoin, etc...The studio composers are the great unsung heroes, and knew more about their craft than the studio heads or producers or directors for whom the composers worked. Imagine doing a film score in ten days, and recording it in two! (Just think how good the concertmaster must be!). Or doing a weekly tv score in two days.
I remember dragging dad to a Bob Florence gig at Alfonse's. He didn't want to go at all, which I thought was odd - not because he disliked Florence's work. He respected his arrangements a great deal. Rather, he'd been with big bands since the 30's, and had had it. Anyway, he came, and all the musicians - Herbie Harper, Coop, etc., were stunned, and treated him like a God.
Simply, he was a musician's musician, who had survived enough shit for two towns the size of Vienna.
I loved the man. He taught me more than anyone else.
I've many favorite moments. One of the nicest was watching my daughter and he seeing an old Rogers&Astaire musical, on which dad had played, and in which he'd added 32 bars of music for the great couple to dance to -- on roller-skates.
Then I showed him "Sundays in the Park with George." When it was over, he said, "That's where I live, you know..."
I could go on.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I could go on.
Please do! Harry Geller is a man of mystery to me, and the only thing I knew about him was that he'd done some fine music for many of my favorite TV shows.
Especially The Wild, Wild West!
Agreed. I'd love to know more.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I recently watched Geller's HAWAII FIVE-O season 1 "King Of The Hill" and the season 2 "To Hell With Babe Ruth" and it's interesting a pattern with his previous work on "The Wild Wild West": we have a jazz meets the psychedelic score the first and an ethnic-oriented (Japanese) score the second.
He also wrote a very psychedelic score for the season 4 of "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" entitled: "Sealed Orders".
Among other things, Geller's "Sealed Orders" contains:
oddball percussions to illustrate the disappearance, electronic and distorted sound effects during the kaleidoscopic assault and psyche-rock electric guitar riffs when Nelson and Crane run in slow motion to the missile room.
You can order the DVD at Amazon to check out his scores.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Going on a bit...He loved Debussy and Ravel. Those were his masters. And, of course, Gershwin. When dad left the Goodman band in '36, he went to RKO, played horn, and got to do some extra arranging for Gershwin's SHALL WE DANCE. Note in the "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" number, where Fred and Ginger do a dance on roller-skates, the music suddenly sounds like a big band, particularly a Goodman arrangement. Fred needed 32 more bars of music, which dad arranged on the spot - with the Gershwins as well as Astaire looking on! Dad had to be 25 then.
Dad was named by an offensive prick before the equally offensive HUAC, and ducked the subpoena by going to Paris.
We remained there (I was eleven at the time) until the mid-fifties. Came back, and from that moment on, dad became totally apolitical. He was an A&R guy for RCA for several years, then went to Capitol, then toured with the Ames Bros., then did music for the Ernie Ford shows for several years, and then wrote all those tv shows for Fox.
What I never understood was why he didn't do more films. He scored LOVE HAPPY at Fox for the Marx Bros, and did an amazing job.
His work was solid, brilliantly crafted, and always surprising. As an arranger, I think he wrote for strings better than anybody else. (He was a child prodigy in Canada, before moving to the US, where he fell in love with the horn and put aside the violin. But he knew that instrument, and loved that section.) Erno Neufeld was his concertmaster at all his recording and tv sessions - proof that he pushed the instrument very far. He did a score for "Hawaii Five-O" that out-Bartok'd Bartok.
He was at Fox for a helluva long time. Abe Most, the great jazz flautist,wanted to try to do some arranging, so dad gave him a section of a piece for a show, laid it out for him, and asked him to fill it in. So Abe did it, and Mr. Newman was pissed off about it and fired dad on the spot.
Dad was in his late sixties at the time. At that point, he put down his pencil and turned his back on the music industry. He began to sculpt, and actually got a show in Dallas.
But it was a bad way to leave the business - bitter.
Music is too good for that.
Sometimes I think it's too good for most people.
And for the other posts: we're not related to Uri Geller. Dad's name was Sitkovetski,and when his parents came from Canada to the US, the Customs guy couldn't spell very well.
What else is new?
Steve Geller
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
To listen to Harry Geller's compositions, you can order these DVD sets.
"The Wild Wild West"
"Hawaii Five-O" season 1
"Hawaii Five-O" season 2
"Mission: Impossible" season 5
"Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" season 4, volume 1
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA
(season 4)
“The Deadly Dolls”
“Sealed Orders”
“Savage Jungle”
“The Death Clock”
One score which should be on the favorite's list is the episode "A Time To Die."
As I wrote here
http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=37799&forumID=7&archive=0&pageID=3&r=559#bottom
However, there are some interesting visual tricks with time and Harry Geller (again, he's great) wrote an amazing "backward time" motif. When time is reversed and we see Nelson's reactor room fight backward, listen to the music. It's not just a tape playing backward, it was written to that the 4-note thematic material can be recognized in reverse. Geller had to write this "backward" so it would play as music but have that "reverse" sound. It's a fantastic piece of work that almost NOBODY notices.
I absolutely LOVED MR. Geller's music for Voyage and he really defined the musical tone of the season. If there is ever a release of Voyage music, his work should be among the scores released. Truly great stuff.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
