Chris Riffs: Sammy Nestico

​It's kind of a strange thing for a first episode. It's sort of a somber one, but at the same time, it's a celebratory one.

Word came yesterday, through people I know on social media, about the passing of the great Sammy Nestico. Sammy was an arranger for the Basie band, and that's perhaps what he was most famous for, but even if you weren't technically a jazz fan,it was impossible not to come across Sammy Nestico if you were in bands growing up.

​Sammy Nestico was 96 years old, and he was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — another good Pennsylvania person, even if he was from the wrong end of the state. In the 1930s, he joined his high school orchestra, according to Wikipedia and we know how trustworthy that is. He was a trombonist.

By the age of 17, he had joined the local radio station’s orchestra. His career — of course his time with Count Basie is one of his most memorable — he also arranged for the US Air Force and US Marine bands, and he played trombone with many of the greats, including Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman, Gene Krupa, and Charlie Barnett. If you're into big band music you know that's an A-list of bands.

He moved into television and film, and worked with people like Bing and Sarah Vaughan, and, of course, Francis Albert Sinatra. And he worked in television, doing music for shows like Mannix, commercial jingles all sorts of things across the board.

But, if you played in a band of any kind in the ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s, up to this day — for middle schools, high schools, even professional groups if you bought stock arrangements, then you must know the name Sammy Nestico, because his arrangements are everywhere.

There's a handful of arrangers names that you come across — Lennie Niehaus. Bill Holman, Dave Wolpe — but Sammy Nestico is the big one.

I probably came across Sammy Nestico for the first time in junior high school, if not before. You notice who arranged this chart, even if you're not really into that stuff. I was just in the early stages of getting into jazz and big band music. I was really kind of a neophyte. But, you know, you just recognize the names and it seems like every second or third chart that my band directors would pull out would be a Sammy Nestico chart.

And why not? They were good. Even the easy ones for middle schoolers were good. And band directors are going to gravitate to that stuff because they want something that's at least fun for them as well.

As I got older, my knowledge of jazz and Big Band jazz grew. Of course you come across the Count Basie stuff. And as you move into the 60s and 70s, that was the era of Sammy Nestico the Basie band and, of course, great arrangers all around. Quincy Jones, what do you what do you got to say on that?

​Sammy had an amazing ability, and I'm going to plug something in here as well, the fact that he was a trombone player. I'm going to use a little my trombone bigotry here and just say it really seems that some of the great great arrangers happen to be trombone players. Of course, I'm the proof against that, but I'm not a great, great trombone player either, and I couldn't arrange my way out of a paper bag. But I do sometimes wonder if it's the building of the harmonies across the trombone section that really helps cement that idea of thinking about arrangement.

My sax playing friends will probably have a good laugh at that or throw something at me, but, you know, that's why they sit in front of me — so I can poke them with the slide.

What you really appreciate with Sammy Nestico is that he never lost sight of those Basie roots. The Basie band always had great arrangers, and that’s the reason it survived over time in ways that all the other big bands really didn't. It changed with the times, new ideas came in, but there was a root, there was always a Basie sound that still exists today, even though the Count has gone on to the great gig in the sky, that roots still exists in the Basie music.

And Sammy Nestico was, of course, hugely influenced by that — that's where he came from. Even as he modernized over the years, he had that at his root, which I think is really kind of a nice consistency. You can grow, but if you have that base to start from, then you know that it's always going to be an evolution of the conversation. I guess tht’s what I'm trying to get at.

And over the years, he managed to do that through his arranging. He was able to continue working because his mind was sharp. If you listen to him talk about his arrangements into the 90s — his 90s — he was still growing. He was still bringing new things to the table. And, he was lucky — he was able to continue creating that way. His arrangements — that was his voice, his instrument. Where a lot of players start losing their embrasure, losing their teeth, their ability to create with their instrument, for Sammy Nestico, his instrument was the band, and thus, he was able to continue creating for nearly a century. He was 96 when he passed, and that's a good amount of time to be creating art,.

And, through his involvement in education and creating charts for developing bands. He really was able to have an amazing influence with that. I know that today's arrangers owe a huge debt to Sammy Nestico, as we all do who play modern Big Band jazz. We all have an enormous debt of gratitude toward because he made it fun for us. We were very lucky. 

It's a shame that great artists have to pass, and how short our lives are and the influence that we can have. But, like so many things, it’s what you leave behind. And for Sammy Nestico it's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of charts for all levels of musicians. That's a legacy. And we're all very lucky as musicians to be touched by that. 

My hope is that the next generation who were influenced by him will do the same. It's not like the old days when they said, good music was popular and popular music was good. The days that the big bands dominate the charts are long gone, with the exception of the occasional Brian Setzer, Harry Connick Jr. or, Michael Bublé. But the music lives on through the creators. The people who write the arrangements, and those of us who interpret them and play them and have the joy of that experience. 

I'm so thankful for that, because it's a big part of who I am. And I’m thankful for Sammy Nestico, a warm and generous and creative master. 

A toast to Sammy Nestico.

Do you have favorite memories of Sammy Nestico? Favorite tunes or interviews? Comment or add links below!