Harold Fields

American Jazz and pop pianist, songwriter and teacher. Born January 20, 1913 in Portland, Oregon. Died September 10, 1988 in Los Angeles, California. He graduated from Juilliard School of Music with a Doctoral Degree in Performance. He was also instructed by the great Art Tatum. Early on he devoted his career to mostly concert work, appearing with orchestra such as the San Francisco and Portland Symphones and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He formed a jazz trio that proved very successful on the Sunset Strip for a number of years. He eventually left to pursue the more lucrative work of composing, being named on a number of popular albums of the 1940's and 1950's. He composed songs for artists like Charlie Ventura, Rosemary Clooney, and Josef Locke. He also composed the original themes for the films "The Blue Hour" (1971) and "Return to Campus" (1975). He had numerous pseudonyms as well as shared pseudonoyms with other artists (see groups). He was also a teacher of many top performers as well as celebrities Mickey Rooney, Mae West, Judy Canova, and many more. He had his own school of piano in Los Angeles for a time and was author of the piano instruction book "A Field Day at the Piano".