Gil Mell� was an American artist, jazz musician and film composer. In the 1950s, Mell�'s paintings and sculptures were shown in New York galleries and he created the cover art for albums by Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins. Mell� played the tenor and baritone saxophone with George Wallington, Max Roach, Tal Farlow, Oscar Pettiford, Ed Thigpen, Kenny Dorham and Zoot Sims, and led a number of sessions recorded for the Blue Note and Prestige labels between 1953 and 1957. It was Mell� who introduced engineer Rudy Van Gelder to Alfred Lion, Blue Note Records founder in 1952. Lion had been impressed with the sound of Mell�'s recordings, which were engineered by Van Gelder. Van Gelder was responsible for hundreds of recordings on Blue Note, virtually every session on the label from 1953 to 1967. As a film and television composer, Mell� was one of the first to use electronic instruments, either alone or as an added voice among the string, wind, brass, and percussion sections of the orchestra. He was the first to compose a main theme for an American television series arranged entirely for electronic instruments. 

December 31st, 1931 in Jersey City  /  Died:   Oct 28th, 2004 - Myocardial infarction