Allan Zavod
Australian pianist and composer Allan Zavod was born in Melbourne on 16 October 1945 and had a classical training at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium. Later he studied jazz at Berklee College.
He pioneered a compositional style allowing musicians from the classical and jazz worlds to share the same concert platform equally.
His career was mainly in America, where he was based for 20 years.
He collaborated, played, toured and recorded with some well-known names, such as the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Duke Ellington, Eric Clapton, Frank Zappa and Richard Branson, and wrote scores for more than thirty American and Australian films and TV shows.
Allan Zavod died from brain cancer in Melbourne on 28 November 2016, aged seventy-one.