Composer, pianist, songwriter ("Nashville Blues"), conductor, arranger and actor, a music student of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Jakob Gimpel, and Mario de Bonaventura. He was a pianist in the dance bands of Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and Buddy Rich, and he conducted and arranged for Lena Horne, Peggy Lee, and Tony Bennett. Joining ASCAP in 1960, his chief musical collaborators included Peggy Lee, Bill Comstock, and Johnny Mercer, and his other popular-song and instrumental compositions include "Act Three", "Summer Has Gone", "Meetcha at the Moat", "Your Face Is Familiar", "Sweet Talk", "The Freeze", "Made Without Microphones", "Scandinavian Suite No. 1, Sweden", and "Have a Heart".