Victor Feldman


Victor Stanley Feldman was an English jazz musician who played mainly piano, vibraphone, and percussion. He began performing professionally during childhood, eventually earning acclaim in the UK jazz scene as an adult. Feldman emigrated to the United States in the mid-1950s, where he continued working in jazz and also as a session musician with a variety of pop and rock performers.

Early life

Feldman was born in Edgware on 7 April 1934. He caused a sensation as a musical prodigy when he was "discovered", aged seven. His family were all musical and his father founded the Feldman Swing Club in London in 1942 to showcase his talented sons. Feldman performed from a young age: "from 1941 to 1947 he played drums in a trio with his brothers; when he was nine he took up piano and when he was 14 started playing vibraphone". He featured in the films King Arthur Was a Gentleman and Theatre Royal. In 1944 he was featured at a concert with Glenn Miller's AAAF band, as "Kid Krupa". He also "took a prominent role in the musical Piccadilly Hayride".

Later life and career

His drums teacher Carlo Krahmer encouraged Feldman to play the vibraphone which he did first in the Ralph Sharon Sextet and later in the Roy Fox band. Feldman played with Vic Lewis and Ted Heath. Feldman played with Sharon from late 1949 to 1951, including for performances in Switzerland. There were further overseas trips with Ronnie Scott, and Harry Parry. He also played with Parry in the UK from October 1953 to January 1954. From 1954, when he recorded with Jimmy Deuchar, and played again with Scott, "he was working mainly as a pianist and vibraphonist; his early vibraphone playing showed the influence of Milt Jackson".
He was a notable percussionist, but it was as a pianist and vibraphone player that he became best known.
Before leaving the UK to work in the US, Feldman recorded with Ronnie Scott's orchestra and quintet from 1954 to 1955, which also featured other important British jazz musicians such as Phil Seamen and Hank Shaw. It was Scott who recommended that Feldman emigrate to the US, which he did in 1955. Once there, his first steady work was with the Woody Herman Herd. He had frequent return trips to the UK over the following years. His 8-week visit in 1956–57 included studio recording sessions and club appearances. After Herman he joined Buddy DeFranco for a short time. In 1958, he had his own working band on the west coast, which included the innovative bassist Scott LaFaro. His 1958 album The Arrival of Victor Feldman includes LaFaro and Stan Levey on drums. He recorded with many jazz artists, including Benny Goodman, George Shearing, Cannonball Adderley and Miles Davis, most notably on Davis' 1963 album Seven Steps to Heaven, the title tune being his own composition. Davis invited Feldman to join his group full-time, but Feldman declined, preferring the stability of studio work to the career of a touring musician. The 5-CD Shelly Manne Black Hawk set, originally released on LP in September 1959, is a good representation of Feldman's unmistakable driving "comping" behind the soloists, helping to define the session as a valuable hard bop genre element.
In 1957 Feldman settled in Los Angeles permanently and then specialised in lucrative session work for the US film and recording industry. He also branched out to work with a variety of musicians outside of jazz, recording with artists such as Frank Zappa in 1967, Steely Dan and Joni Mitchell in the 1970s and Tom Waits and Joe Walsh in the 1980s. It is Feldman's percussion work on Steely Dan's song "Do It Again" that gives the song its Latin groove. Feldman appears on all seven Steely Dan albums released in the 70s and 1980 in the band's first incarnation.
Feldman's vibraphone soloing is featured extensively on the Grammy Award-winning The Music from Peter Gunn, with AllMusic writing, "There's some particularly impressive work by drummer Shelly Manne and vibes player Victor Feldman, whose cool, understated playing seems to deliberately recall that of Milt Jackson."
Feldman died in 1987 at his home in Los Angeles, aged 53, following an asthma attack.
In 2009, he was inducted in the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville.

Discography

As leader

Main source:

As sideman

With The Youngbloods
With Dane Donohue
With Pepper Adams
With Cannonball Adderley
With Leo Sayer
  • Here
With Candi Staton
  • Young Hearts Run Free
  • House of Love
With Michael Franks
  • Objects of Desire
With Glenn Frey
  • The Allnighter
With Deniece Williams
  • Song Bird
With Kim Carnes
  • St. Vincent's Court
With Dion DiMucci
  • Streetheart
With Gordon Lightfoot
  • Shadows
With Marvin Gaye
With Jim Messina
  • Messina
With Michael Nesmith
  • The Wichita Train Whistle Sings
With Sam Phillips
  • Dancing with Danger
With Billy Preston
  • Pressin' On
With Maria Muldaur
With Dusty Springfield
  • Cameo
With Willie Tee
  • Anticipation
With Nat Adderley
With Patti Austin
  • Patti Austin
With Livingston Taylor
  • Man's Best Friend
With Curtis Amy
  • Way Down
With James Clay
With Yvonne Elliman
  • Yvonne
With Rita Coolidge
With Bob Cooper
  • Coop! The Music of Bob Cooper
With Stephen Bishop
  • Careless
With B.B. King
  • L.A. Midnight
With Christopher Cross
  • Christopher Cross
With Stephanie Mills
  • Merciless
With Miles Davis
  • Seven Steps to Heaven
  • Quiet Nights
With Kiki Dee
  • Stay With Me
With Betty Wright
  • Betty Wright
With Dalbello
  • Pretty Girls
With Dionne Warwick
With Olivia Newton-John
  • Totally Hot
  • Physical
With José Feliciano
  • 10 to 23
With Melanie
  • Photograph
  • Seventh Wave
With Valerie Carter
  • Wild Child
With Melba Moore
  • Peach Melba
With Amy Grant
With Peter Allen
  • I Could Have Been a Sailor
With Cher
With Lulu
  • Lulu
With Neil Diamond
  • Heartlight
With Buddy DeFranco
  • Blues Bag
With Jackie DeShannon
  • New Arrangement
With Carly Simon
  • Another Passenger
With Al Jarreau
With The Doobie Brothers
With Liza Minnelli
  • Tropical Nights
With The Free Movement
  • I've Found Someone of My Own
With Solomon Burke
  • Electronic Magnetism
With Thelma Houston
With Jimmy Webb
  • Angel Heart
With Woody Herman
With Paul Horn
  • Impressions of Cleopatra
With Milt Jackson
  • Memphis Jackson
With J. J. Johnson
  • A Touch of Satin
  • Concepts in Blue
With Plas Johnson
  • This Must Be the Plas
With Randy Newman
  • Born Again
With Quincy Jones
With Sam Jones
  • The Chant
With Stan Kenton
  • Hair
With Barney Kessel
With Minnie Riperton
With Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton
  • Once Upon a Christmas
With John Klemmer
  • Waterfalls
  • Intensity
With Henry Mancini
  • The Music from Peter Gunn
With Shelly Manne
  • Shelly Manne & His Men Play Peter Gunn
  • Son of Gunn!!
  • At the Black Hawk 1
  • At the Black Hawk 2
  • At the Black Hawk 3
  • At the Black Hawk 4
  • At the Black Hawk 5
  • My Son the Jazz Drummer!
  • Daktari
With Carmen McRae
  • Can't Hide Love
With Blue Mitchell
  • Stablemates
With Nicolette Larson
With Wendy Waldman
  • The Main Refrain
With Oliver Nelson
  • Zig Zag
With Art Pepper and Zoot Sims
  • Art 'n' Zoot
With Sonny Rollins
  • Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders
With Lalo Schifrin
  • Gone with the Wave
  • The Cincinnati Kid
With Bud Shank
  • Girl in Love
  • Bud Shank Plays Music from Today's Movies
  • Magical Mystery
With Rickie Lee Jones
  • Rickie Lee Jones
  • Pirates
  • Girl at Her Volcano
  • The Magazine
With Boz Scaggs
  • Down Two Then Left
With Steely Dan
  • Can't Buy a Thrill
  • Countdown to Ecstasy
  • Pretzel Logic
  • Katy Lied
  • The Royal Scam
  • Aja
  • Gaucho
With Joni Mitchell
With James Taylor
With Gino Vannelli
  • Brother to Brother
With Harold Vick
With Leroy Vinnegar
  • Leroy Walks!
  • Leroy Walks Again!!!
With Tom Waits
  • Heartattack and Vine
  • Swordfishtrombones
With Gregg Allman Band
  • Playin' Up a Storm
With Gerald Wilson
  • Feelin' Kinda Blues
  • On Stage
  • The Golden Sword
With Elton John
  • 21 at 33
  • The Fox
With Frank Zappa
  • Lumpy Gravy
With Joe Walsh'