Musician In 1943, he played the trumpet with jazz violinist
Joe Venuti. The following year, he worked with Billy Rogers and played
trombone in the bands of
Boyd Raeburn,
Jimmy Dorsey,
Buddy Rich,
Georgie Auld and
Chubby Jackson. In 1949 he accompanied the singer
June Christy in the orchestra of
Bob Cooper. From 1951 until 1953 he played and arranged music in
Elliot Lawrence's orchestra, and in 1953 with
Count Basie. He subsequently resided in Los Angeles, where he played the
bass trumpet for
Zoot Sims.
Composer and arranger A 1944 Band graduate of
New York Military Academy, in
Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York, Mandel performed an interpretation of
Erik Satie's "
Gnossiennes #4 and #5" on the piano for the film
Being There (1979). He won the
Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s) in 1981 for
Quincy Jones's song
Velas, and again in 1991 for
Natalie Cole and
Nat King Cole's "
Unforgettable", and one year later once more for
Shirley Horn's album ''
Here's to Life''. In 2004, Mandel arranged
Tony Bennett's album
The Art of Romance. Bennett and Mandel had collaborated before on Bennett's
The Movie Song Album (1966), In 2012, he worked on one of
Paul McCartney's most recent songs at the time, "My Valentine". He provided the song with a new and original arrangement. It appeared on McCartney's expanded version of his album
Kisses on the Bottom in November of that year.
Film and television scores Mandel composed, conducted and arranged the music for numerous movie sound tracks. His earliest credited contribution was to
I Want to Live! in 1958, (theme song for the movie and TV series
M*A*S*H), "
Close Enough for Love", "
Emily" and "A Time for Love" (nominated for an Academy Award). "Emily" was a favorite of pianist Bill Evans and alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, both of whom included it in live performances until they died, and Evans included it in a duo recording with Tony Bennett. Mandel wrote numerous film scores, including the score of
The Sandpiper. The love theme for that film, "
The Shadow of Your Smile", which he co-wrote with
Paul Francis Webster, won the 1965
Academy Award for Best Original Song and the
Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1966. == Honors ==