Dick Halligan Dead: Blood, Sweat & Tears Member and Film Scorer Was 78

Dick Halligan, who gained two Grammys for his early work with the group Blood, Sweat and Tears and later turned to movie and tv work, died Jan. 18 in Rome, Italy at age 78. The household cited pure causes.

Halligan was a member of Blood, Sweat and Tears for the horn-driven rock band’s first 4 albums. He performed trombone on the group’s heralded 1968 debut, “Little one is Father to the Man,” then moved over to keyboards and flute for his or her second album, the self-titled, “Blood, Sweat and Tears,” after co-founder and keyboardist Al Kooper left the band. With David Clayton-Thomas coming in because the grittier new lead vocalist, the group had a serious business breakthrough and went from the counterculture cult recognition of the debut to successful the 1969 album of the 12 months Grammy for the sophomore launch. Halligan remained on board for 2 extra albums earlier than taking his depart in 1971.

It was the breakout second album that earned Halligan each his Grammys and 5 of his seven nominations. In addition to the large win for the “Blood, Sweat and Tears” album, Halligan additionally picked up a win for finest up to date instrumental efficiency for the album’s “Variations on a Theme by Eric Satie.” He and the band additionally picked up three different nominations on the time, together with a nod for file of the 12 months for the No. 1 single “Spinning Wheel.” There have been extra singular nominations for the 1968 and 1970 honors.

His first movie scoring credit score was the Barbra Streisand movie “The Owl and the Pussycat,” launched in 1970, when he was nonetheless a member of Blood, Sweat and Tears. Some episodic work on reveals like “The Bionic Lady” and “Holmes and Yoyo” adopted, and by the late Seventies, Halligan had turn out to be energetic in movie scoring, doing music for options together with “Go Inform the Spartans” (1978), “A Power of One” (1979), “The Octagon” (1980), “Cheaper to Maintain Her” (1981) and “Worry Metropolis” (1984).

Though his movie credit ended after 1984, his work was heard on the large display just lately in “Licorice Pizza,” which had on its soundtrack a track he co-wrote with Clayton-Thomas, “”Lisa, Hearken to Me,” that was launched as a single from the fourth Blood, Sweat and Tears album.

After getting out of the movie/TV world, Halligan wrote compositions for jazz and orchestral ensembles, which have been recorded or carried out by the Formosa Chamber Gamers, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Roy Poper and others.

Halligan grew up in Glens Falls, NY, intently targeted on the music of Stan Kenton, Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller and different big-band leaders. He earned an MA in music principle and composition from the Manhattan Faculty of Music. It was a jazz saxophonist pal, Fred Lipsius, who requested him to affix Blood, Sweat and Tears, a proposal Halligan is alleged to have initially rebuffed earlier than studying that it meant a much-wanted ticket to California.

In his later years, Halligan wrote a ebook, “Musical Being,” which he tailored right into a touring one-man present of the identical identify.

The musician is survived by his daughter, songwriter-vocalist Shana, his son-in-law, Eric Kaufman, his grandson, Otis, and his stepson, Buddy.