Notes for Notes

Abstract

Notes for Notes Mark McKnight The University of North Texas Music Library and College of Music recently acquired a significant collection of vocal jazz-related materials from the late Grammy-winning arranger and vocalist Gene Puerling. The collection, donated by Puerling’s widow, Helen, includes arrangements by Puerling from his earliest days in the 1940s until his death in 2008, as well as instrumental accompaniments by Frank Comstock, Patrick Williams, Roger Kellaway, Rob McConnell, Les Hooper, and Clare Fischer, among others. In addition to scores, the collection contains memorabilia related to Puerling’s life and work, including letters of admiration from renowned musicians, material for live television programs, and numerous recordings made throughout his life. Puerling, a singer and vocal arranger for The Hi-Lo’s! and The Singers Unlimited, wrote intricate, harmonically complex arrangements, and his pieces for those ensembles influenced countless future vocal groups, including The Beach Boys, The Manhattan Transfer, The Real Group, and Take 6. Puerling’s vocal writing for The Hi-Lo’s! and The Singers Unlimited earned him fourteen Grammy award nominations, and he won the award for his highly acclaimed 1982 arrangement of “A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square,” recorded by The Manhattan Transfer. In addition to The Manhattan Transfer, Puerling received commissions from other professional vocal groups, including The Real Group and Chanticleer, as well as such solo artists as Linda Ronstadt and Gloria Estefan. The Gene Puerling Collection resides in the Special Collections section of UNT’s Music Library, and is accessible by special arrangement. A finding aid is available at http://findingaids.library.unt.edu/index.php?p=collections/findingaid&id=734. The collection complements other collections maintained collaboratively by the UNT Music Library and the UNT College of Music’s Division of Jazz Studies, the Stan Kenton and Maynard Ferguson collections. Kenton, famed jazz orchestra leader, gave UNT a collection of arrangements in 1962 and bequeathed the remainder of his collection to UNT in 1979, while the Ferguson Collection came to UNT in 2008. The UNT Division of Jazz Studies plans to publish new editions of Puerling’s arrangements through the newly formed publishing entity, North Texas Jazz Press. Gala concerts and other events to celebrate the Gene Puerling Collection and feature Puerling’s music are scheduled for the weekend of 16–18 April 2015. For further information and up-to-date [End Page 672] information on events related to the collection, visit http://jazz.unt.edu/genepuerling. Mark McKnight University of North Texas The Music Library Association is hosting a historic joint congress of IAML (International Association of Music Libraries) and IMS (Inter -national Musicological Society) at The Juilliard School in New York, 21–26 June 2015. The conference theme, Music Research in the Digital Age, also celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of RILM. Anniversary essay alert: We conclude our series of composer “anniversary essays” with this issue’s tribute to Carl Nielsen by Anne-Marie Reynolds. And we also extend eightieth birthday wishes to Peter Maxwell Davies with Justin Vickers’s essay and catalog of his “Sea Works.”—Ed. Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 673] Mark McKnight University of North Texas Copyright © 2015 Music Library Association, Inc