Jack Melick
John T. Melick Jr. was an American bandleader, pianist, and arranger.
Early life
Melick was born and raised in North Plainfield, New Jersey, where he attended North Plainfield High School. Like many American kids of his era, piano lessons were an early part of his education. His mother was a school teacher and his father was an insurance salesman; both recognized his early interest and talent as a musician and encouraged his pursuit of a musical life. He proclaimed his intention to become a band leader at the age of 7. Raised on the Great American Songbook of the 1930s and 1940s, he became immersed in the jazz and big band cultures of his youth.Among others, his early musical influences included famous jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Stan Kenton. His career would be most influenced by popular band leaders like Freddy Martin, Harry James, and Orrin Tucker.
Melick formed his first band at the age of 13 and had his first paying gig at the age of 14, playing the piano for students at a local dance studio. At the age of 16, fate offered him a unique opportunity to perform publicly as the older and more experienced musicians were in Europe or Asia fighting in World War II. He began playing local dance gigs culminating in a summer 1946 engagement at Camp Sagamore in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. It was an engagement him and his young band would play for the following two summers.
Another primary influence in the direction of his career was a contemporary musician. William John "Bill" Evans was his classmate at North Plainfield High School and a friendly "competitor" for local music jobs during their high school years. A future jazz star and Grammy winner, Evans was usually the first choice to play the piano at local proms and social events. Rather than remain constantly in Evans' shadow as a pianist, Melick decided the best route to success on the local scene was to be the "leader of the band" and concentrate on commercial dance music.
College and the Korean War
Oberlin College
Melick entered the Oberlin Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College in the Fall of 1947. He originally intended to enroll in the Conservatory as a piano major. To which he quickly came to the realization that the hours of practice and focus on piano didn't fit his ultimate desire to be a dance band leader. He then switched his major to public school music education. Music education not only better suited his career path, it was also something he could pursue in the event he didn't make it in the dance band business.In fact, he thrived in his high school band. One of his early heroes was his high school band director – Joe Schaedel. Melick's musicianship and leadership skills served him well when he was named the band's director – as a high school senior – as Schaedel suffered from a short-term illness. Schaedel recovered, but Melick led his classmates in the marching band all through the football season of 1946 and beyond. Schaedel had taught him how to play the clarinet so he could be in the marching band. He continued on the clarinet through college and played in the Oberlin marching band as well.
He began working almost immediately to form his own band at Oberlin. By his second year, he and his dance band played almost every weekend throughout northwestern Ohio; parties at small colleges like Kenyon, Antioch, Wittenberg, Hiram, and Wooster. In addition, he returned to Camp Sagamore in the summer of 1948 with his high school band. In the summer of 1949, he would begin a three-summer solo engagement at a local hangout called The Club in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey.
Military service
He graduated from Oberlin in June 1951 and headed straight home to his piano gig in Point Pleasant but with an inkling about what might happen next. Most of his non-college friends had already been drafted for the Korean War. In early August, the letter arrived, and he reported for processing at Camp Kilmer in Edison, New Jersey. Shortly after that, he was on his way to basic training at Camp Chaffee, Arkansas. A classmate and trombonist from Oberlin, Dick Strang, had arrived at Camp Chaffee a month before. When basic training finished for Strang, he went immediately into the Army Band at Camp Chaffee. Melick figured the Army Band was his destiny in the service as well. But then, for some reasons not explained to the draftees, all specialties were canceled, and everyone was put into the pipeline to fight in Korea. The staging point was Camp Drake outside Tokyo and Melick was on his way there in January 1952.While awaiting his assignment, he found the camp's Service Club. The Service Clubs all had pianos, and he took the opportunity to play whenever he could. Soon after his arrival at Camp Drake, another soldier heard Melick's rendition of "Ain't Misbehavin'". Admiring Melick's play, the soldier – just a private himself – thought something could be done to get Melick out of the pipeline and into Special Services. The soldier turned out to be a young Hollywood actor named Richard Long. Melick didn't know him, and in his own mind, didn't give Long's suggestion a lot of thought. However, the next day, Melick began to receive calls from various Army musical commands in Japan regarding his background. Two days later, he was on his way to Yokohama. Melick didn't see Richard Long again until Melick's arrival in Hollywood in the late 1950s, but he began to tell the story that Richard Long saved his life by getting him an assignment in Yokohama instead of Korea.
For the next year, he was stationed at Special Services in Camp Yokohama. In addition to his own playing, he booked a series of talented Japanese entertainers to perform at the EM HUT – the enlisted men's club at the Yokohama R&R Center.
During this time, he met actor and comedian Jim MacGeorge. Melick, MacGeorge, and a handful of Japanese entertainers formed the Jack Melick Show, and they toured Japan on 10-day leaves. He also met Miyoshi "Nancy" Umeki, whom he dated in Japan for more than a year. She was a well-known singer in Japan, and would later go on to Hollywood stardom.
Melick's military draft period ended in August 1953, and he returned briefly to The Club in Point Pleasant Beach. However, he was so intrigued by his experience in Japan that he asked a Japanese agent, Tats Nagashima, to arrange a working visa so that he could return to Japan to resume entertaining. In November 1953, his solo piano act began playing with house musicians at Japanese clubs and U.S. military installations.
Career
Melick spent another year entertaining in Japan, and in November 1954 decided it was time to begin his "real career" in the United States. So he returned home at the age of 24. He placed an ad in The Billboard magazine promoting himself as a pianist and within two days had telegrams and phone calls from numerous bands. He selected a band led by the only name he recognized – Leo Peeper – and joined Peeper's "territory band" in Muscatine, Iowa in late 1954. Soon, the band's publicity began touting "Leo Peeper and His Orchestra, featuring Jack Melick."The "territories" comprised numerous dance ballrooms throughout the United States, most notably in the Midwest and Southwest from Minnesota to Texas. Most towns, even the small ones, had a dance ballroom or hall, such as an Elks Club or Moose Lodge. Dozens of territory bands played one-nighters at these halls from the 1920s through the 1960s.
Melick had been with Leo Peeper for just 4 months when he got a call from Jimmy "Dancing Shoes" Palmer – a Chicago band leader. He offered Melick a job at considerably higher pay, but what intrigued Melick the most was an ambitious schedule that culminated in a two-week engagement at the world-famous Hollywood Palladium. He accepted the position and joined Palmer's band in early 1955. By the time they reached Los Angeles, he was Palmer's featured pianist and had two solos during each performance.
The Hollywood years
On KTLA
The Hollywood Palladium hosted a TV show – broadcast on KTLA – called Palladium Dance Time every Tuesday night. It was the practice of the Palladium to feature the current band on the television show. So Palmer's band arrived on a Monday night and was performing on television the very next night. Melick had a solo in each half-hour of the show. His performances that first Tuesday caught the attention of the show's director. The next morning he was invited to the KTLA studios to meet with television pioneer and station manager, Klaus Landsberg, about a new Friday night show to replace Lawrence Welk, who had departed KTLA for the ABC television network.Melick, along with a handful of other featured players, was hand-selected by Landsberg to join the renowned band leader Orrin Tucker on a new dance music program; The Orrin Tucker Show. Melick was briefly the center of controversy as Jimmy Palmer publicly accused Landsberg of stealing his piano player. It didn't last long and everyone involved got a bit of free publicity. Melick remained the featured pianist on The Orrin Tucker Show until it was cancelled in October 1956 shortly after the death of Landsberg.
Melick settled in Hollywood during these years and Los Angeles remained his home base until 1966.
While playing for Orrin Tucker on television one night a week, Melick also began playing across the street from Universal Studios at a local piano bar called The Keys. The studio system was still in force in Hollywood from 1955–1956, and The Keys was a favorite local hangout for such young stars as Clint Eastwood, William Reynolds, and David Janssen, in addition to the many crew members and stuntmen. He also renewed his friendship with two fellow soldiers from the Korean War; Jim MacGeorge and Richard Long. MacGeorge had embarked on a very successful career as a voice actor and comedian. Long had resumed his busy career in film and television.