April 13 - Salvador Camarata

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On this day, in 2005, Salvador Camarata passed away in Burbank, California. Born on May 11, 1913 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, Sal was was the youngest of eight children who discovered an aptitude for music at an early age. He studied the trumpet at Julliard and Columbia university while at the same time earning money with studio bands in New York. In the early Thirties, he joined Tommy Dorsey's band and arranged several hits for the group, including Tangerine and Green Eyes. As the calendar switched decades from the Thirties to the Forties, Sal switched big bands, from Dorsey to Benny Goodman. When World War II hit, he stepped up, joined the Army Air Forces and spent a good chunk of the conflict as a flight instructor.

Following the end of his tour of duty, Sal went to work for Decca Records, where he did arranging work for the likes of Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington. In 1944, he was sent to London to write a score for the film London Town. While there, he and the head of British Decca, Sir Edward Lewis, became fast friends. Together they would found London Records, originally designed to export classical recordings from England to the United States but eventually became a home for rock and roll bands, including early recordings of The Rolling Stones and ZZ Top.

Sal returned to the United States and New York City in 1950. He continued to work for Decca and did conducting gigs on the side for various television productions and the popular singer Vic Damone. In the mid Fifties, he was contacted by Walt Disney, who wanted to know if he was interested in moving to Southern California to help him with a new project. Sal was interested and became instrumental in setting up Disneyland Records (now known as Walt Disney Records)

in 1956.

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As the guy in charge of Artists and Repertoire, Sal dove right into the art of creating fabulous recordings. It wasn't long before he recommended that Disney build their own recording studio. Walt didn't feel a real need to do that and encouraged Sal to build one. So he did. He bought an old auto repair shop on Sunset Boulevard and created Sunset Sound Recorders. Over the next 16 years, Sal cranked out over 300 albums for Disney at his Sunset studio. But he was always looking for places to make recordings. He was once driving around town with Jimmy Johnson, the other founder of Disneyland Records, and made him stop at a VFW hall. After walking around the interior of the building, informally testing the acoustics with hand claps, he negotiated renting the place and ended up recording the Cinderella soundtrack there.

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Sal was a musical jack of all trades during his decade and a half with Disney. He frequently was the conductor on recordings. He was the voice coach on 1963's Summer Magic starring Hayley Mills and Burl Ives. He developed the signature sound of Annette Funicello by recording her signing each song twice and then blending the two tracks to get a fuller sound. He was proud of the fact that Annette didn't think much of her singing until after she heard his first effort and was surprised that the voice coming out of the speakers was her. In the process he also managed to silence some of the executives who felt it would be easier to just overdub her (although the sales of her records did that as much as Sal's technique).

Sal also changed the format of movie soundtrack albums. Prior to Disneyland recordings, the score from a movie was usually presented in three minute segments (about the length of a 45), even on long playing records. Sal presented LPs with long continuous stretches of music, not necessarily in the order they were heard in the film, and arranged for a more casual home listening setting. In the first year of the Disneyland label, seven successful soundtrack recordings were released in this new format. Over his tenure, the label won eight Grammy Awards with many more nominations.

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In 1976, Sal and Disney amicably parted ways so he could concentrate on other projects. He arranged and conducted a critically acclaimed series of classical albums for London Records. In 1981, he bought the other premier recording studio in Hollywood, The Sound Factory, which started in the Sixties and has seen artists as varied as Dolly Parton, The Jackson Five and the Red, Hot Chili Peppers come through its doors. He merged The Sound Factory with his Sunset studio into the venture now known as Sunset Sound Factory. It's still serving all of Tinseltown's recording needs under the leadership of Sal's son, Paul.

Sal was declared an official Disney Legend in 2003 for all his musical contributions to the company, many of which can still be heard as background music to several areas of the theme parks. Two years later he suffered a short illness that landed him in the hospital. He wasn't able to recover and ended his phenomenal career at the age of 91.