Hollander, Max (????-1986)

Violinist from New York who was the associate concertmaster of the NBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Arturo Toscanini and then Guido Cantelli in the ‘40s and ‘50s.

In the late ‘40s, he appeared with Leonard Bernstein and Benny Goodman at Carnegie Hall. He also found time to record Charlie Parker with Strings in 1949. (The album was re-released on CD in 1992.)

The NBC Symphony Orchestra was busy recording in 1951 and 1952, and many of these recordings are available on the twelve-CD set, The Art of Guido Cantelli. If you don’t want to pop for the twelve-CD set, you can also get your hands on The NBC Broadcast Concerts, January 1951 & December 1951, a four-CD set released in 2004.

Max collaborated with many of the jazz greats, including Artie Shaw on the compilation, 1951-1954. In 1954, he got in the Halloween spirit with Louis Armstrong and Gordon Jenkins and His Chorus and Orchestra on “Spooks!”, which appears on the Satchmo in Style collection. He was also a member of the string section on Lena Horne’s remake of “Stormy Weather” on the album of the same name, recorded circa 1957. (A CD was released in 2002.)

In 1958, he appeared on a pair of Perry Como albums, When You Come to the End of the Day and Saturday Night with Mr. C. A year later, he was in the studio with Cannonball Adderley recording The Nutty Squirrels. He made an appearance as himself on The Bell Telephone Hour in 1962. In 1971, he recorded From a Whisper to a Scream with Esther Phillips. It was re-released on CD in 1988.

In 1973, he performed on Jon Lucien’s Rashida and Shirley Bassey’s Live at Carnegie Hall. He switched tacks a bit in the mid-‘70s on the Janis Ian albums, Aftertones and Between the Lines. In 1979, he recorded “That’s What God Looks Like To Me”, which appeared on the Frank Sinatra boxed set, Trilogy. One of his last recordings appears to be the soundtrack of Fame.

His wife was the actress, director Mary Hollander and his son Lorin is a piano prodigy. He passed away in 1986.

Posthumous re-issues abound, including The Complete Norman Granz Master Takes, The Very Best of Dave Grusin, and Bird: The Complete Charlie Parker on Verve.

Frank Sinatra recordings:
That’s What God Looks Like To Me (Stan Irvin/Lan O’Kun)

He performs here on “Just Friends” from Charlie Parker With Strings…

Sources:

Hollander, Max (????-1986)

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