Producers

Jack Millman has been composing, orchestrating & producing music since 1948. His early musical career was as a professional jazz trumpeter. He studied trumpet with Rafael Mendez and Shorty Rogers, composition, orchestration and arranging with Alexander Laslo and Eric Zeisl. At the age of 17 he sat-in with Lionel Hampton at the Meadowbrook Ballroom and was subsequently asked to join the band for a 6-week stint at the Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles. Shortly after, he was drafted into the Army. He performed with the 6th Army Band at the Presidio in San Francisco and joined the Stan Kenton Orchestra for a West Coast tour.

When he completed his service he formed and managed his own jazz groups throughout the 1950s. During this time he also composed & produced a series of jazz charts which gained popularity with local Southern California musicians. Upon his return to Hollywood he recorded & produced four albums on major labels with his own All-Star personnel, performing many of his own compositions alongside popular standards. He then formed an 18-piece big band that performed at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa where he was actively involved in the surf/rock craze. Dick Dale, Jan & Dean, The Beach Boys, as well as many other surf/rock groups played at the Rendezvous under the Millman baton.

By 1962 – at the age of 32 – Jack gave up the trumpet and set-up a Studio and Music Library in Hollywood – thus becoming a Producer full time. He continued to work as a composer, and scored many film soundtracks throughout the 70s. By the end of the 1970s, Jack founded the media company Startime Video Jukebox, for his Video JukeBox invention. During the mid-1980s he moved to Santa Fé where he worked as a music critic for the Santa Fe Reporter, produced numerous broadcasts for the local NPR stations, and founded the music company High Desert Beat Productions.