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Ray Jessel (born Raymond Jessel, 16 October 1929 – 17 July 2015) was a Welsh songwriter, orchestrator, and musical theatre composer. Born in Cardiff, he received a degree in music from the University of Wales. With a one-year scholarship for studying musical composition, he went to Paris and studied under Arthur Honegger.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.rnh.com/bio/169/Jessel-Raymond )〕 He moved to Canada with his family at the age of 26. He started his career as an orchestrator and composer for CBC Radio and CBC Television. There he met his life-long songwriting partner, Marian Grudeff, a Canadian pianist. Together they played active roles in orchestral and theatrical compositions. Their major breakthrough came with the the 1964 Broadway musical ''Baker Street''. They were originally noticed by the Broadway producer Alexander H. Cohen, who signed them for the musical. Their next score ''Hellzapoppin'' was not a success, but their title song was was recorded by Jimmy Durante and Louis Armstrong. He moved to Hollywood and made successful career with musicals and sketches for ''The Dean Martin Show'', ''The Carol Burnett Show'', ''The Smothers Brothers Show'', ''The Bob Newhart Show'', ''Comedy Factory'', and various John Denver specials. He was a story editor of the ABC comedy ''The Love Boat'' from 1977 to 1980, and writer and consultant of ''Head of the Class'' from 1986 to 1991. He wrote and produced the CBC TV series ''The Jacksons''. He also co-wrote, with Martin Charnin, lyrics for ''I Remember Mama'' in 1979. He was persuaded by Michael Feinstein and Shelly Goldstein. With his original ''Wanna Sing A Show Tune'', he started his first perform with Feinstein. The song was recorded on Feinstein's album ''Live At The Algonquin''.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.lmlmusic.com/artists/rayjessel/ )〕 His first stage performance was at age 72. He performed at the Hollywood’s Gardenia Room in 2002.〔 He married Cynthia Thompson with whom he wrote a number of songs. The most successful are ''Whatever Happened To Melody?'', which was recorded by Michael Feinstein (in ''Forever''), David Campbell (in ''Yesterday Is Now''), and by Masters of Harmony (in ''California Gold Rush''); and ''I'm All Right Now'' on John Pizzarelli's CD ''New Standards.'' They wrote scripts and songs for the Shari Lewis' PBS show ''The Charlie Horse Music Pizz''.〔 After a long retired life, at age 84, he auditioned for the ''America's Got Talent'' (season 9) in 2014. He performed an original song ''What She’s Got''. It is about a man who has a transgendered woman as a girlfriend. While the judges and public loved it, and he qualified for the next round of the competition, it received criticism from the LGBT community. He was a recipient of five MAC Awards for "Original Song", and the 2004 Bistro Award.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://bistroawards.com/hall-of-fame/ )〕 He died "of natural causes" at his home in Studio City, California. ==References== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ray Jessel」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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