Sammy Nestico

Samuel "Sammy" Louis Nestico (born February 6, 1924 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is a prolific and well known composer and arranger of big band music. Nestico is most known for his arrangements for the Count Basie orchestra.

Biography
Sammy Nestico received a Bachelor's degree in music education from Duquesne University in 1950, and has since then received an honorary Doctor of Music degree there, as well as numerous awards.

He has been a professional music arranger since 1941, when he became a staff arranger for ABC radio station WCAE in Pittsburgh at age 17. During his career, he arranged music for the Count Basie Orchestra (1967–1984), the US Air Force Band (15 yrs) and the US Marine Band (5 years) both in Washington, DC. In addition, he played the trombone in the big bands of Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman, Gene Krupa, and Charlie Barnet.

In 1998-1999 Nestico was a professor at the University of Georgia, teaching commercial orchestration and conducting the Studio Orchestra. He also directed music programs at Los Angeles Pierce College, Woodland Hills, CA, Westinghouse Memorial High School, and Wilmerding, PA.

During his long career in the television and film industry, he has arranged and conducted projects for artists such as Bing Crosby, Sarah Vaughan, Toni Tennille, Frank Sinatra, Phil Collins, Barbra Streisand, Count Basie, and many others. As orchestrator, he has worked on nearly seventy television programs, including Mission: Impossible, Mannix, Charlie's Angels, and The Mod Squad.

He has also written commercial jingles for Anheuser-Busch, Zenith, Ford Motor Company, Mattel Toys, Pittsburgh Paints, the National Guard, Dodge, Remington Bank, Americard and more.

Sammy Nestico has published nearly 600 numbers for school groups and many for professional big bands. He has conducted and recorded his arrangements with several leading European Radio Jazz Orchestras including the BBC Big Band in London, Germany's SWR Big Band and NDR Big Band and the DR Big Band.

The Sammy Nestico Award
The Airmen of Note, the premier jazz ensemble of the USAF, sponsor an annual competition for composers and arrangers of big band music, in honor of Sammy Nestico. Previous winners include:

Discography

 * 1982: Dark Orchid (Palo Alto Records)
 * 1986: Night Flight
 * 2000: Basie and Beyond - Quincy Jones/Sammy Nestico Orhestra (Qwest Warner Records)
 * 2004: A portrait of Sammy (Fenwood Music Inc Records)
 * 2004: No Time Like the Present - Sammy Nestico and the SWR Big Band (SWR Music 94118)