Pete Carpenter

From Wind Repertory Project
Pete Carpenter

Biography

Clarence E. "Pete" Carpenter (1 April 1914, Honolulu, Hi. – 18 October 1987, Sherman Oaks, Calif.) was an American jazz trombonist, musical arranger, and a veteran of television theme song scoring.

After a long career playing the trombone in bands and as a studio musician, Carpenter started working with composer Earle Hagen and writing music for television on shows like Bewitched (1964), Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (1964), and The Andy Griffith Show (1966–1967).

Carpenter's collaboration with the much younger composer Mike Post began in 1968 and lasted until his death nearly two decades later.Their big breakthrough was the top 10 Billboard hit and Grammy Award-winning theme for Cannell's private detective drama The Rockford Files in 1974, starring James Garner.

Carpenter and Post went on to score over 1800 hours of television, and to compose the music for both television shows like CHiPs (1977), Magnum, P.I. (1980), Tenspeed and Brown Shoe (1980), The A-Team (1983), Hardcastle and McCormick (1983), Riptide (1984), and Will: G. Gordon Liddy (1982).


Works for Winds


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