Bill Finegan, 91, an architect of the big-band sounds of Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller who later traded in commercial success to co-create the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, died Wednesday at Bridgeport Hospital in Connecticut from complications of pneumonia.
In 1938, Dorsey purchased Finegan’s score for “Lonesome Road” and played it for Miller, who offered the young arranger a job. Between 1938 and 1942, Finegan wrote more than 300 arrangements for Miller, including some of the band’s biggest hits: the classic “Little Brown Jug,” “Sunrise Serenade” and “Song of the Volga.”
Finegan also wrote arrangements for the films “Sun Valley Serenade” in 1941 and “Orchestra Wives” in 1942, and had begun a lifelong profession as a teacher.
Finegan worked intermittently for Dorsey and wrote arrangements for the film “Fabulous Dorseys” in 1947. He also wrote for bandleaders Horace Heidt and Les Elgart.
But Finegan bristled at the restrictions placed on the writing by the industry and band leaders. In 1952, Finegan teamed up with another leading arranger, Eddie Sauter, to create a band that would explore and expand the concept of the jazz orchestra. It produced music that still stands as some of the most experimental of the swing era.
Time magazine called the group “the most original band heard in the United States in years.”
Mustafa Khalil, 88, a former Egyptian prime minister who was an architect of the 1979 Camp David peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, died late Saturday in Cairo.
Khalil — then secretary-general of the ruling Arab Socialist Union party — accompanied late president Anwar Sadat in his historic visit to Jerusalem in November 1977. The visit paved the way for the negotiations mediated by then-U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
Khalil, who served as prime minister from 1978 to 1980, then headed the Egyptian team in negotiations with the Israelis at Camp David, which ended with the 1979 peace deal, the first between an Arab nation and Israel.
More recently, Khalil served as deputy chairman of the ruling National Democratic Party. He stepped down in November.
