Phil Moore

Born on 20 February 1918 in Portland, Oregon, and passing away on 13 May 1987 in Los Angeles, California, Phil Moore began formal music lessons at age four and developed into a skilled pianist. After completing his studies at the University of Washington in Seattle, he chose a professional path in music. Early engagements included performances with West Coast ensembles such as the group directed by Les Hite, though he soon shifted his primary focus toward arranging—an interest he later attributed in interviews to his encounters with Art Tatum’s extraordinary technique. Despite this emphasis, Moore sustained activity as a solo performer and leader of a small ensemble. In 1939 he played a major role in originating the block-chord approach later adapted and brought to wider attention by Milt Buckner and George Shearing. By the early 1940s he had already appeared on screen at least once; he then joined the MGM music department and performed with the studio orchestras. Fronting the Phil Moore Four, he took part in several films, among them the all-Black 1947 musical This Joint Is Jumpin’, A Song Is Born (1948), Double Dynamite (1951)—where he accompanied Frank Sinatra—and In Harm’s Way (1965).

During the same decade his songs entered film soundtracks, most prominently “Shoo Shoo Baby,” featured in Beautiful But Broke, Follow the Boys and South of Dixie (all 1944) as well as Big City (1948). The number also figured in the 1946 British production A Matter of Life and Death, underscoring a narrative point about the supposed erosion of American culture. Temporarily leaving Hollywood duties, Moore served briefly as musical director for Mildred Bailey during her CBS radio program in New York. His principal base, however, remained Los Angeles, where he worked as accompanist, musical director and occasional vocal coach for artists that included Lena Horne and Dorothy Dandridge. He participated in numerous recording dates supporting vocalists such as Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe, and he established the Singers Workshop. Tied to these efforts, he issued the instructional set For Singers Only, a collection of 78-rpm discs intended to teach movie-star vocal techniques. In 1973 he acted as associate musical director for the television film Duke Ellington: We Love You Madly. Moore also produced concert-hall compositions—Symphony in Green, Fantasy for Girl and Orchestra, the piano concerto Polynesian Paradise and a trombone concerto—all of which he recorded.