Then, in 1963, Nestico transferred to the Marines, accepting a reduction in rank in exchange for the prestigious assignment of leading the White House orchestra (a position once held by John Philip Sousa), where he remained until 1968. He led the band for a year in 1954-55 before returning to his staff position. as a trombonist and arranger in the USAF Marching Band but was quickly brought into the newly formed Airmen of Note as its chief arranger.
In 1950, degree in hand, Nestico returned to military service, this time in the U.S. In 1946 he joined Charlie Barnet’s band, though he only spent a few months there before returning to Pittsburgh and WCAE while completing a degree in music education. He proved a talented and extraordinarily quick study: At 15, he wrote his first arrangement for the orchestra by 17, he was working as a trombonist and arranger in the house orchestra at Pittsburgh radio station WCAE.Īfter a year, Nestico was drafted to serve in the Second World War, where he played in the U.S. He began playing trombone at the age of 13 when he joined his school’s eighth-grade beginner orchestra. Samuel Louis Nistico was born Februin Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Louis Nistico, a railroad worker, and Frances Mangone, a homemaker. “My wife and I, we sit and say how fortunate we are, and what a good life we’ve had.” “It’s been a good life, an interesting life,” Nestico said when he was 88. Based in Los Angeles, his big bands invariably used the highest-caliber musicians on the Hollywood circuit, with his albums netting four Grammy nominations. On top of all this, Nestico had a career as a bandleader in his own right, albeit one that only began when he was in his fifties. You want to make it as musical as possible, and make it so that the students say, ‘Boy, I like playing this!’” “ not professionals, but just because you’re writing something fairly simple doesn’t mean it has to be bland. Nestico explained the secret of his success in a 2012 interview with JazzTimes. First attempting it on a lark, he became the world’s most published and arguably most beloved scholastic jazz arranger, a staple of curricula around the globe-his “Hay Burner” and “The Queen Bee” being the school-band equivalent of jazz standards. The Airmen of Note have since 1996 sponsored the Sammy Nestico Award competition for composers and arrangers of big-band jazz.Īlmost certainly, however, Nestico is best known for his long career as a freelance composer and arranger of music for jazz students.
Marine Band and directing the White House orchestra under Presidents John F. Air Force Band, most of them as chief arranger for its jazz ensemble the Airmen of Note, before transferring to the U.S. Prior to his collaboration with Basie, Nestico established himself among the foremost composers and arrangers for military bands.
Nestico was also a first-call arranger for vocalists, working extensively with the likes of Sarah Vaughan, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, and Toni Tennille. A veteran of the Charlie Barnet, Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman, and Gene Krupa orchestras as a trombonist, he made his most enduring contribution to big-band jazz during his 17 years as an arranger for the Count Basie Orchestra. Nestico was a true giant in the world of music, and of jazz in particular. The exact cause of death was undisclosed however, he had been in long-term hospice care at his home for several months. His death was announced by his family in a statement on Nestico’s official Facebook page. He was three weeks shy of his 97th birthday. Sammy Nestico, a trombonist, composer, and arranger who became one of the key figures in the development of jazz education, died on January 17 at his home in Carlsbad, California.
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