Arnold Ross; Modern Jazz Pianist

Arnold Ross, 79, modern jazz pianist who worked with Vaughn Monroe, Glenn Miller, Harry James and Charlie Parker. A native of Boston, Ross played violin, clarinet and trumpet and studied piano from age 12. As a teenager, he played aboard a cruise ship visiting the West Indies and South America and then went to New York where he performed and recorded with the big bands. By the late 1940s, he was freelancing in California, and accompanied singer Lena Horne, with whom he toured Europe. Ross performed, conducted and arranged music for Bob Crosby’s television show in the early 1950s, accompanied Billy Eckstine and led his own trio in California. Later he worked with Nelson Riddle in radio and television. Also a veteran performer with such notables as Charlie Ventura and Dizzy Gillespie, Ross last played publicly for a New Year’s Eve party Dec. 31 with the Harry James band in Arizona. In recent years, Ross had also appeared locally with Conrad Janis’ Beverly Hills Unlisted Jazz Band. Among his recordings with James were “When Your Lover Has Gone,” and with Ventura, “I Don’t Stand a Ghost of a Chance” and “Tea for Two.” On Monday night in Culver City of cancer.