Pete Rugolo, award-winning composer and arranger, dies at 95

Pete Rugolo, an award-winning composer and arranger who came to prominence in the world of jazz as the chief arranger for Stan Kenton’s post-World War II band and later wrote the themes for TV’s “The Fugitive” and “Run for Your Life,” has died. He was 95.

Rugolo, who also had a recording career with his own band, died Sunday of age-related causes at a nursing facility in Sherman Oaks, said his daughter, Gina Rugolo Judd.

As a composer and the chief arranger for Kenton from 1945 to 1949, Rugolo is credited with being a major force in shaping the progressive jazz sound of the Stan Kenton Orchestra.

“Big bands of the Swing Era were on their way out, and he came along and brought this remarkable new life to that big band instrumentation,” music critic Don Heckman told The Times.

Rugolo won the DownBeat magazine poll as best arranger in 1947 -- the first of five wins as best arranger over the next seven years.

After leaving Kenton, Rugolo began a two-year stint as the musical director for Capitol Records in New York, where he was responsible for discovering and recording new acts.

“Bebop was just starting then and I signed all the bebop players for Capitol,” he recalled in a 1993 Times interview. “When their stars would come to New York -- Peggy Lee, Mel Torme -- it was up to me to record them.”

Among the artists Rugolo signed was Miles Davis, and he produced the famous “Birth of the Cool” sessions with Davis’ group.