Ya Gotta Try!

Peter O'Gara has always been a big Basie follower. So it wouldn't have been a surprise to anyone that POG contacted Sammy Nestico, composer / arranger who wrote a lot for Basie for his approval for "The Peter O'Gara Big Band" album of Sammy's music.

Sammy Nestico is regarded as one of the most gifted and versatile composers / arrangers. During the 1970s Sammy was the composer and arranger for the Count Basie Orchestra. He directed the recording of ten albums of original music, four of which won Grammy awards. He was an arranger and orchestrator for Capitol Records and co-wrote the equivalent of 63 albums for them. He orchestrated for most of the big film studios such as 20th Century Fox, Universal, Paramount, Warner Brothers, MGM and Columbia. He arranged and conducted albums for recording artists Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and many others.

His arranging skills came to television where he wrote for specials by Julie Andrews, Gene Kelly, the Golden Globes Awards, the Tonight Show, Liza Minelli and many more. As an orchestrator, he has worked on Mission Impossible, The Tony Randall Show Hawaii Five-O, M.A.S.H etc.

Other arrangers for the album included Don Menza, Dave Grusin, Bob Lowden, amd Bill Holman.