35 Facts About Onzy Matthews

Onzy Matthews is best known for the big band arrangements done for the Lou Rawls albums Black and Blue and Tobacco Road, as well as arrangements for several of Ray Charles' 1960s releases.

Onzy Matthews had his own big band for many years and recorded numerous tracks for Capitol Records, including two albums released under his own name.

Onzy Matthews later had a close relationship with the Duke Ellington orchestra, working as a pianist, arranger and conductor through the late 1960s and 1970s.

Onzy Matthews grew up in Dallas until his early teens when his mother moved to Los Angeles seeking better-paying work.

Onzy Matthews auditioned for band leader Les Brown as an arranger; Brown helped Matthews focus on what to keep in an arrangement that works, and what to discard.

In 1959, Onzy Matthews contacted Dexter Gordon who was active in the Los Angeles jazz scene at the time.

The group started with a book of 21 charts from Onzy Matthews, and rehearsed on Wednesday nights for 5 months until they finally booked gigs in the area.

Onzy Matthews became known around Los Angeles as an adept arranger and musical director; his first professional arranging assignments came at this time with Lionel Hampton, Della Reese, Ruth Price, and Gene McDaniels.

The first tune of Onzy Matthews to be commercially recorded was in 1956, when clarinetist Maurice Meunier, who had played with Lionel Hampton, recorded in France.

Onzy Matthews' arranging style was a perfect fit for Rawls, but the pair did not re-unite for any other releases for Capitol.

Onzy Matthews' band continued to back Lou Rawls on live concerts and events during the late 1960s.

Onzy Matthews was finally signed to Capitol by Venet, and his first LP Non-Stop Jazz Samba was recorded in February 1963.

Onzy Matthews showed his adeptness at a wide range of writing; the tracks are somewhat like Quincy Jones' 1962 album Big Band Bossa Nova released by Mercury Records.

Later, Holmes had Onzy Matthews arrange all the tracks for his own release Book of Blues: Volume I in 1964 for Warner Bros.

Onzy Matthews wrote more charts and supplied the same band on Holmes' November 1966 release A Bowl of Soul, with Warner Bros.

In January 1964, Onzy Matthews recorded his first commercially released LP under his own name for Capitol: Blues with a Touch of Elegance.

In October 1966, Onzy Matthews was assigned to write for Esther Phillips.

Onzy Matthews's charts were recorded live in 1970, and appeared on the Atlantic release Confessin' the Blues, one of Phillips' best recordings.

Onzy Matthews was known as a singer, but the only documentation of this is on the 2007 Mosaic set.

Producer Michael Cuscuna found three tracks Onzy Matthews recorded during this era in July and October 1964, where he overdubbed his singing while fronting his big band.

Onzy Matthews had one arrangement on the 1966 album Ray's Moods, and three more on Charles' Cryin' Time.

Onzy Matthews first worked in Los Angeles night clubs as a singer in the 1950s, and became known as a personality.

Onzy Matthews broke into acting around Hollywood; Matthews was tall, handsome, and very well spoken.

Onzy Matthews appeared in the July 1965 NBC Kraft Suspense Theatre episode Connery's Hand and the February 14,1966, episode In Search of April from Run for Your Life starring Ben Gazzara which ran on NBC.

Onzy Matthews undertook several collaborations with the Duke Ellington Orchestra through the 1970s as an arranger.

Onzy Matthews co-wrote an unrecorded composition with Ellington, Just a Gentle Word from You Will Do.

Several years after Duke Ellington died, Onzy Matthews had a disagreement in 1979 with Mercer Ellington, and later had to settle a pay dispute with Ellington's son arising from Onzy Matthews' uncredited arrangements on the 1996 Musicmasters Records CD release Only God Can Make A Tree.

Onzy Matthews returned to New York in 1993 after a financially devastating operation for prostate cancer.

Onzy Matthews contributed string arrangements for Vanessa Rubin's I'm Glad There Is You album done for RCA Novus during this time.

Onzy Matthews died at the age of 67 on November 13,1997, in his Dallas apartment, of heart failure brought on by arteriosclerosis.

Onzy Matthews was in demand as an arranger for numerous singers, and the band had a level of success that translated into being a very good live "club date" band and "studio" orchestra.

Onzy Matthews was an important part of several different musical and cultural movements on the West Coast during the 1950s and 1960s.

Onzy Matthews was part of the Central Avenue music scene in the 1950s and grew musically from interaction with important jazz musicians such as Lionel Hampton, Dexter Gordon, and Curtis Amy.

Onzy Matthews trained at the Westlake College of Music with great composers and arrangers such as Bill Holman, Gary Peacock, Bob Cooper, and Bob Graettinger.

Onzy Matthews is enigmatic and a hard person to pinpoint; in many ways he did not get nearly the credit he deserved in comparison with big band leaders or musical directors such as Oliver Nelson, Gerald Wilson, or Harold Wheeler.