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Irving Fields
Biography
As of 2002, Irving Fields was one of the last of his generation of active musicians; trained in the prime years of Tin Pan Alley and classic American popular music before World War II, he could be found still playing piano regularly in New York in the second year of the new century. Born in 1915, Fields grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and, after a stint as a child actor in Yiddish theater, became part of the generation that followed New Yorkers like Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, George Gershwin, and their contemporaries into music. At age 15, he won first prize playing piano on Fred Allen's Amateur Hour radio, which got him 50 dollars cash and a week playing at the Roxy Theater. From there, he went on to engagements at other venues and studied at the Eastman School of Music and the Masters Institute in Manhattan, and made appearances as a piano soloist with the Boston Pops as well as leading his own group that got to Carnegie Hall. He also began writing songs, among them "Miami Beach Rhumba," which became a hit for Xavier Cugat. He also wrote "Chantez, Chantez," which was covered by Dinah Shore; "Managua, Nicaragua," recorded by Guy Lombardo, Emdundo Ros, and Freddy Martin; "The Door Is Open," recorded by Sarah Vaughan; and "Night After Night" and "Miami Beach Cha Cha Cha," among others.
Selected Discography