Francy Boland

Francy Boland (1929-2005) was a Belgian pianist, composer and arranger, born François Boland in Namur. He is known above all for the Clarke-Boland Big Band, which he founded with the drummer Kenny Clarke in the early 1960s. After the band split in the early 1970s he concentrated on composing. Boland played with Bobby Jaspar and other Belgian musicians in the late 1940s and joined Chet Baker's quintet in 1955. In the United States he wrote arrangements for Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Woody Herman and Dizzy Gillespie, then returned to Europe as chief arranger for Kurt Edelhagen.