Australian composer Dr Allan Zavod has died at the age of 71.
During his career Melbourne born Dr Zavod collaborated with the greats Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and Eric Clapton.
He has worked with international acts Frank Zappa and George Benson as well as Australian musical royalty Kate Ceberano, James Morrison and Judith Durham.
Dr Zavod studied at the Berklee Collge of Music in Boston at the invitation of jazz genius Duke Ellington. He later became a professor of music at the college.
Allan was based in the USA for 20 years and toured with the Glenn Miller Orchestra. He has composed over 30 film scores including ‘Communion’ with Eric Clapton.
Songwriter Frank Howson, who created the stage show ‘Dream Lover’ about Bobby Darin, and who once collaborated with Dr Zavod, paid tribute to his friend on Facebook.
R.i.P Allan Zavod – whom I have known since we were young boys performing on TV shows. We also collaborated on songs, one of which won the Asia Pacific Song Contest and was performed by Kate Ceberano to a televised audience of 200 million. It was called Time Can’t Keep Us Apart. And neither shall it. He will live on in memories and I’ll smile when I see his smiling face in my mind. Bless you, dear friend.
The University of Melbourne awarded Zavod the Degree of Doctor of Music in recognition of his international achievements as a composer.
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