1. Axel Stordahl was an American arranger and composer who was active from the late 1930s through the 1950s.
16 Facts About Axel Stordahl
1. 2.
Axel Stordahl is perhaps best known for his work with Frank Sinatra in the 1940s at Columbia Records.
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Axel Stordahl was born in Staten Island, New York, United States, to Norwegian immigrant parents.
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Axel Stordahl began his career as a trumpeter in jazz bands that played around Long Island and the Catskills during the late 1920s and early 1930s.
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Axel Stordahl began arranging around this time, and in 1933 he joined Anthony Fanzo's orchestra in both capacities.
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In January 1940, Frank Sinatra joined the group as vocalist, and it became apparent that Axel Stordahl's arrangements were particularly well suited to the singer's voice.
7.
In January 1942, when Sinatra convinced Dorsey to let him record four songs without Dorsey, Axel Stordahl arranged Sinatra's very first commercial solo recordings for the RCA Victor subsidiary label Bluebird, and when Sinatra left Dorsey later that year to go solo, Axel Stordahl went with him and became his music director.
8.
Axel Stordahl was the credited orchestrator for the 1945 Academy Award-winning picture Anchors Aweigh which starred Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly.
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Axel Stordahl was admired for his skills in framing Sinatra's voice, creating a soft, opulent sound with swirling strings, understated rhythms and woodwinds.
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Axel Stordahl was one of the first American arrangers to tailor his accompaniments to the vocal qualities of a specific singer.
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When Sinatra moved to Capitol Records in 1953, Axel Stordahl arranged his first recording session there.
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Axel Stordahl went on to work with other singers such as Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Eddie Fisher, Dinah Shore, Nat 'King' Cole and Dean Martin, among others.
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Axel Stordahl worked with Eddie Fisher's television program for four years and composed and orchestrated the theme to the popular television comedy series McHale's Navy.
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Axel Stordahl married singer June Hutton in 1951.
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Axel Stordahl died August 30,1963, at the age of 50 of cancer in Encino, California.
16.
Axel Stordahl was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.