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David Blumberg (born December 29, 1942, died April 17, 2010). Was a composer, arranger, orchestrator, EIS tutor and trumpet player who worked with many of the most notable artists of the 70's and 80's such as Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, and Barbra Streisand. He was the arranger of Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive and worked with Herbie Hancock on the 1987 Academy Award winner Round Midnight.
He was a graduate of Spud Murphy's Equal Interval System and was taught by the legendary Spud himself. He went on to be the head director of EIS after Spud passed away in 2005, and privately tutored many EIS students.
Blumberg was born in Blythe, California moving to Los Angeles at the age of 7, he started to play trumpet at age 13 and added Composition and Arranging to his studies at 16. He studied music in college and privately with many teachers[1]
During the the 1960's he worked as an arranger for Buddy Rich and took off at a soul label named Venture Records created by the legendary producer, Clarence Paul.
After an inspiring conversation with Lyle (Spud) Murphy, David realized that he had finally found the person who could teach at the level David had dreamt of, and immediately chose Spud as his musical mentor. A devoted and passionate student, David mastered the Equal Interval System (EIS) course over the next few years while developing a lifelong friendship with Spud.
During the 1970’s Hal Davis at Motown Records decided to begin using David, and this association lasted over eleven years garnering 14 gold albums, including their first three Jackson Five albums, where he received his first #1 record on Michael Jackson's Got To Be There.
The next #1 arrangement was for Diana Ross, titled Love Hangover.
At Motown he worked with Gladys Knight, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, the Miracles, Jermaine Jackson, Leon Ware, the Four Tops, Norman Whitfield, Holland-Dozier-Holland, and many other artists, plus Marvin Gaye, and other labels during that same period.
He worked with Quincy Jones on the Body Heat album including Everything Must Change, and orchestrations on several of Quincy Jones's films.[2]
Other artists he worked with were Nat and Cannonball Adderly, Wayne Shorter, Milt Jackson, Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra, Melissa Manchester, Tim Buckley, Nils Lofgrin, Neil Young, Spirit, Bobby Womack, Patti LaBelle, James Brown, Johnny Mathis, Eric Clapton, Natalie Cole, Gene Page, Joe Sample, Frankie Valli, David Byrne, Cameo, Peabo Bryson, Johnny Nash, Anita Baker, Tina Turner, Patti Austin, Jerry Butler, Syreeta, Jimmy Smith, Andy Williams, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Dakota Staton, Tony Martin and many others.[3]
In 1979, he was the arranger on Gloria Gaynor’s legendary #1 hit “I Will Survive,” which was voted the #1 dance record of the last 20 years. David has arranged for the popular jazz artist David Benoit, including the orchestra-based “American Landscape” album, and created a live version of the album for Benoit’s concert with the San Francisco Symphony.
He scored the TV show The Spectacular World Of Guiness Records with Tony Martin Jr. and did several shorts, animated features, commercials and Multi-Media/CD Roms
In 1999, he composed the music for the feature, Unconditional Love, for Horne Entertainment
He had numerous concert performances of his classical compositions for orchestra, string quartet, chamber groups, and brass/wind ensembles.
In recent years he arranged for David Benoit including the American Landscape album, three albums with Maxwell for Sony, including This Woman's Work, Ellis Hall's Straight Ahead album, orchestration for Robbie Buchanan for Barbra Streisand's Movie album, and orchestrated for Jorge Calandrelli for SISSLE.
He was the arranger on three songs on the new duets album for the legendary Ray Charles, titled Genius Loves Company, with Norah Jones, Diana Krall and Gladys Knight, and an album for Stevie Wonder.
In film, David has worked as orchestrator or arranger for Herbie Hancock on four films, including Round Midnight which won the Academy Award for music in 1987.
He also worked on films with Elmer Bernstein, Bob Alcivar, Neil Young, Fred Karlin, and Frank Stallone.
He most recently had been working as an arranger on American Idol for last four years before his passing.
David was a member of the SCL, a Board member of ASMAC, Governor of The Recording Academy, member of ASCAP and the American Federation of Musicians.
- ^ "SCL mourns DAVID BLUMBERG". Society of Composers And Lyricists. Retrieved 19 April 2010.
- ^ Shaffer-Shelby, Cate. "DB's Bio". Retrieved 24 June 2010.
- ^ "David Blumberg's Credits page at Discogs". Discogs. Retrieved 14 December 2015.