User:Wik John/sandbox/John Barbe - American Musician

John Barbe (born January 6,1927) grew up in Scarsdale, NY. He started playing the clarinet at 10, joined the high school band while he was in 7th grade, started playing the saxophone and writing music at 14, and joined the American Federation Of Musicians at 15. After high school graduation he was a student at the Juilliard School for two terms. At 18 he was drafted into the U. S. Army Infantry and was on his way to invade Japan when World War II ended, and John was transferred to an Army band in Manila as an arranger and clarinetist. A year later he returned to Juilliard and was graduated in 1950. During his school years, he played single engagements and wrote arrangements, including several for the Raymond Scott Band. After graduation he was a saxophone player and arranger for a band at New York City's Roseland Ballroom. John then spent eight years traveling with bands through 47 states, starting with six months with the Johnny Long Band, two years with the Ray McKinley Band, then five years as a player and arranger with the Buddy Morrow Band, and four f those years as the road manager. In 1960 John married Buddy Morrow singer Jane Schneider, and they moved to Bronxville, NY. John worked in New York City as a composer and studio manager for a commercial music company. The Barbes moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 1962, and John spent 25 years as a composer/arranger. During his career he wrote 650 arrangements for bands and singers, including four for the Atlanta SYmphony Orchestra and an album of hymns for the Southern Baptist Convention. John composed and produced music for 300 broadcast commercials, ten documentary, industrial and training films, a feature film, two children's shows, 20 programs for National Instructional Television, four shows for live sales meetings, and 600 episodes of a television soap opera. In related activities, John was a founding member of the Atlanta Chapter of NARAS, and a board member for 20 years, an served on the Executive Board of the Atlanta Federation of Musicians for 20 years. His opinon as an expert witness prevailed in four song plagiarism lawsuits. The Barbes have two children, Shoshana Barbe Stubin of Passaic, New Jersey, and David Barbe of Athens, Georgia. Jane Barbe, in addition to creating lyrics and melodies for many of the commercials, also had a separate career as commercial actor, and also supplied the recorded voice for telephone companies and computer systems heard by 50 million people each day. More information about her career and that of David Barbe is in Wikipedia. In 2015 Jane and John Barbe were inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.