Verne Langdon

VERNE LANGDON was born in Oakland, California to a musical family; his mother was staff First Cellist at NBC radio in San Francisco, his father, a dentist, put himself through dental college playing violin in dance bands, and Verne's uncle was famed jazz cornet player and bandleader Red Nichols (Red Nichols and the Five Pennies) http://www.rednichols.com . By the tender age of two, little Verne was climbing up on the piano bench and duplicating melodies; by age twelve he was studying classical piano with Thomas Ryan, then Head of the Music Department at San Jose State University, San Jose, California. In time it developed that the classical training was conflicting with Verne's innate gift for improvising and creating his own melodies, at which point Ryan advised Verne's parents to put an end to the regimented piano studies and let Verne do it his way. By fourteen, he was working for both San Jose's major music stores, first as a piano mover, then demonstrating pianos and organs, where the Godfather of Exotica, Korla Pandit, heard him perform and invited him to study music and theory with him. Verne studied with Pandit for several years, learning the simultaneous Hammond organ/grand piano techniques the beturbaned virtuoso had originated and perfected on radio for the "Chandu the Magician" soap opera. Next for Verne Langdon came a career in radio with a weekly live broadcast organ music show. When he left the station to complete his college studies, he was heard seven days a week, four to six hours every day, both as a musician and as a disc jockey! In the years since he's recorded over two dozen albums and CDs, ranging from theatre organ ("The Phantom Of The Organ") to harpsichord ("The Vampyre At The Harpsichord"), calliope ("Circus Clown Calliope! Vols. 1 & 2") to celesta ("Baby Sleep Sweet" and "Fairies In The Moonlight",) plus "Out Of Love", a CD of music and lyrics penned by Langdon. His music has been heard on television shows, from sitcoms such as "Good Times" and Stan Freberg's "Federal Budget Revue" to daytime soap operas like "As the World Turns", "All My Children", "Days of Our Lives", "Passions", and many others. Verne Langdon's New Age grand piano "Candlelight" tracks are also featured by Sirius Radio's shock-jock Howard Stern. Verne records exclusively for Dejavu Record Company and Electric Lemon Record Co. Both labels are represented and distributed by The Orchard in New York. More recent popular releases include Verne's hauntingly-mysterious "Black Gardenias Collection", "Carnival Of Souls Collection","Verne Langdon's Carnival Of Souls the DVD", all from Dejavu Record Company. New in 2009 is "Jonathan Winters - a very special time" 19-track CD album produced by Skip Edwards & Verne Langdon, featuring arrangements and orchestrations by Skip Edwards and words & music by Verne Langdon, just in time for the 52nd Grammy Awards nomination consideration! Further information on Verne Langdon is available by visiting his Official Website at http://www.VerneLangdon.com.