He was a jazz pianist, composer and lyricist who was a member of Mongo Santamaria’s band in the early 1960s and occasionally substituted by Herbie Hancock.
He has wrote many songs that have been successfully recorded by artists including Thelonius Monk, Georgie Fame, Stan Getz and Matt Bianco. Hubert Laws was nominated for a grammy for his album Morning Star for which he wrote the title tune.
Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames had a No. 1 hit in the UK and No. 25 hit in the US with “Yeh, Yeh” for which he says “I wrote it in all of 15 minutes”, and has also been a hit record for the 1980s group Matt Bianco.
Matt Bianco Recordings
Yeh Yeh (Rodgers Grant/Pat Patrick/Jon Hendricks)
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