Trivia

Became an orchestrator of Broadway musicals, many of which he created the arrangements for between 1960 and 1983.

In 2003 he was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.

His television composing includes the third season theme to Rod Serling's Night Gallery.

Eddie Sauter studied music at Columbia University and the Juilliard School.

Although Sauter is best known for jazz, he also orchestrated Broadway musicals such as 1776, The Apple Tree, and It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman.

In 1961, he worked with tenor saxophonist Stan Getz on Focus, a collaboration for which Sauter at Getz's commission wrote a suite of string compositions without primary melodies. This allowed Getz to improvise them in his customary style. Roy Haynes, the jazz drummer, appeared on "I'm Late, I'm Late", the only selection to use a non-string instrument other than Getz.

From 1952 to 1958, Sauter was co-leader of the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra.

He began as a drummer and then played trumpet professionally, including with Red Norvo's orchestra. Eventually he became a full-time arranger for Norvo.

He arranged and composed for Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman, and especially Benny Goodman, earning a reputation for intricate work such as "Benny Rides Again," "Moonlight on the Ganges," and "Clarinet a la King".

Sauter and Stan Getz collaborated again during Sauter's work composing the score for the film Mickey One (1965), which starred Warren Beatty.

Between 1957 and 1959, he was Kurt Edelhagen's successor as leader of the SWF orchestra in Baden-Baden, Germany.

Orchestrator Jonathan Tunick said of Sauter's Broadway work, "Eddie did these marvelous things, always theatrical, always effective. And completely unlike anybody else.".

His composition "World Without Time" is used as the theme music for the public affairs show The Open Mind, originally hosted by Richard Heffner.

A bout of tuberculosis contracted in 1942, however, forced a stay at Pomona, NY's Summit Park Sanatorium and stalled his musical career for some time.

Sauter was a composer and arranger during the swing era.