Johnny Keating

• Born 10 September 1927, Edinburgh, Scotland

One of the finest arrangers of space age pop. After studying piano and trombone, he taught himself how to arrange and compose in his teens. He went to work with British big band leader Ted Heath in 1952 as a trombone player, but within two years Heath asked him to become his primary arranger. In the early 1960s, he and songwriter Johnny Worth (writing as "Les Vandyke") masterminded the career of a minor British pop star, Eden Kane. The team wrote and produced a string of British top 10 hits for Kane in 1961-63. Keating then arranged and conducted a series of albums for London's Phase 4 series. Keating tosses a bit of everything into his arrangements--strings, percussion, rock rhythm section, brass, vocal choruses with and without words. Yet his touch is subtle and swinging, understated and never bombastic.