DeRosa, Vincent (5th October 1920-Present)

He was a horn player and teacher born in Kansas City, Missouri into a family where his father was a clarinettist and his mother was a singer.

He started studying the horn when he was ten years old and when he as twelve he moved with his family to Los Angeles. He then studied which his uncle, Vincent Retubertis and gave several performances.

When he was fifteen he ventured into his career as a musician and substituted at the San Carlo Opera Company after his father, who had performed there, passed away. He then started working professionally at 20^th Century Fox Studios when he was seventeen as a member of their horn section.

During WWII he enlisted in the military and became a musician with the radio production unit of the California Air Army Corps. He was first discharged in 1943 but was recalled and continued serving until 1945.

After he returned to civilian life he forged on with his career on a freelance basis and as a successful and first-call studio brass musician, becoming one of the most recorded over his long-running career which spans an amazing eight decades. In fact, he was the first horn of most of the recordings he made in Hollywood for four of those decades.

He also started working in the field of musical education in the 1950s when he taught students at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music. From 1974 he was a teacher at the University of Southern California and taught there for 31 years until he retired from there in 2005. In 2003 the Vince DeRosa Scholarship Fund was established.

His career saw him working with an enormous amount of artists with just a few of them including The Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra, of which he was a member, American Jazz Philharmonic, Hoyt Axton, Ann-Margret, The Beatles, Tony Bennett, Elmer Bernstein, The Blackbyrds, Pat Boone, Stanley Clarke, Rosemary Clooney, Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr., Judith Durham, Billy Eckstine, Duane Eddy, The Emotions, Ella Fitzgerald, Dan Fogelberg, Judy Garland, Jascha Heifetz, Phyllis Hyman, Harry James, Tommy James, Michael Kamen, Stan Kenton, Frankie Laine, Peggy Lee, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra Chuck Mangione, Dean Martin, Billy May, Carmen McRae, Alfred Newman, Harry Nilsson, Oscar Peterson, Mike Post, Louis Prima, Minnie Riperton, Tex Ritter, Miklos Rozsa, Arturo Sandoval, Lalo Schifrin, Doc Severinsen, Artie Shaw, Horace Silver, Mel Torme, Stanley Turrentine, John Williams, Lenny Williams, Nancy Wilson and Frank Zappa.

His album output was massive so just a very small selection of them includes Mr. Guitar: The Complete Recordings 1955-1960 by Chet Atkins, Unforgettable: With Love by Natalie Cole, Hard Times for Lovers by Judy Collins, Rita Coolidge by Rita Coolidge, Bing! His Legendary Years, 1931 to 1951 by Bing Crosby, Dingo by Miles Davis, Move Over Darling by Doris Day, Evening with John Denver by John Denver, September Morn by Neil Diamond, Faces by Earth, Wind & Fire, Heartaches and Harmonies by The Everly Brothers, Sings the Rodgers and Hart Song Book by Ella Fitzgerald, Now Voyager by Barry Gibb, Koo Koo by Debbie Harry, Q: The Musical Biography of Quincy Jones by Quincy Jones, The Blues and the Beat by Henry Mancini, That’s What Friends are For by Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams, Headquarters by The Monkees, Four Platters and One Lovely Dish by The Platters, Best of the Capitol Years by Nelson Riddle, Silk Degrees by Boz Scaggs, Voice of Frank Sinatra by Frank Sinatra, Black Rose by J.D. Souther, With Michel Legrand by Sarah Vaughan and Just For You by Barry White.

Featuring on literally thousands of movie soundtracks he performed on film soundtracks such as Ben-Hur, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Caddyshack, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Enforcer, E.T., How the West Was Won, Indiana Jones and the Lat Crusade, Jaws, Love at First Bite, The Magnificent Seven, Mary Poppins, The Music Man, My Fair Lady, Oklahoma, Robin Hood, Rocky,The Sound of Music. Sudden Impact and Three Musketeers. He also performed on music for television shows that include Batman, Bonanza, Dallas, Hawaii Five-O, The Rockford Files, The Simpsons and Star Trek. He is also slated to appear in the 2012 production called 1M1: Hollywood Horns of the Golden Years.

After a long and hugely successful career, he was made an Honorary Member of the International Horn Society in 2004 before officially retiring in 2008.

The author Todd Miller has written a very detailed book on Vincent’s life and career entitled Carved in Stone.

After a life in music that lasted at least eight decades he died in July 2022 when he was 101 years old.

Glen Campbell recordings
Hollywood Smiles (Larry Weiss)
Capitol Records 1A 006 86273

Johnny Mathis & Deniece Williams recordings
Emotion (Barry Gibb/Robin Gibb)
S CBS 6164B (UK 45)

Sources:

DeRosa, Vincent (5th October 1920-18th July 2022)

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