Jerry Carretta

American pianist, arranger, and composer. Born Jan 28, 1915 New York City, New York Died Mar 14, 1996 (81 years old) Took his first piano lesson at the age of seven, began playing professionally soon after high school. While he was playing with Sammy Kaye, he met Don Cornell, who was at the time singer and guitarist for the band. When Cornell left the Sammy Kaye group to go out on his own, Jerry became his accompanist and arranger. During their partnership, Mr. Carretta had accompanied Mr. Cornell during extensive musical tours where Mr. Cornell had sung tunes that Mr. Carretta had arranged. However, Mr. Carretta was tired of arranging songs, so he took some time to study and develop his own type of music by learning the Schillinger Method of musical composition thru the guidance of Tom Timothy and Richard Benda, two professional music instructors.