Suicide Is Painless, the theme tune from both Robert Altman’s 1970 film M*A*S*H and the subsequent TV series, his Oscar and Grammy-winning song The Shadow of Your Smile (from the film The Sandpiper), and his Grammy-awarded arranging work on Natalie Cole’s blockbuster album Unforgettable (1991).
But in a working life that stretched from the 1940s into the new millennium, Mandel amassed enough credits as arranger, composer and musician to fill a small telephone directory.Beginning his musical life as a trumpeter and trombone player with the bands of such eminent jazzmen as Woody Herman, Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw and Count Basie, Mandel honed his composing and arranging skills, but did not become known to a wider public until he began working.
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