By GEORGE VARGA
JAN. 19, 2021
Making timeless music was a lifelong calling throughout the eight-decade career of acclaimed composer and arranger Sammy Nestico. His music elevated albums by artists as varied as the Count Basie Orchestra, Michael Bublé, Barbra Streisand, Phil Collins, Frank Sinatra, Buddy Rich and Bing Crosby, and also contributed to the scores for “The Color Purple,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Heaven Can Wait,” “Hawaii Five-O” and dozens of other films and TV shows.
A longtime Carlsbad resident, Nestico remained musically active until shortly before he began receiving hospice care in October at his home. The nine-time Grammy Award-nominee passed away in his sleep there Sunday morning.
He died of natural causes, according to his second wife, Shirley Nestico. He was 96.
“Sammy was always a happy and humble man,” Shirley Nestico said. “My children couldn’t believe that someone who was so famous was so down-to-earth.”
Nestico had congestive heart issues, according to Shirley Nestico and Los Angeles filmmaker Diane Estelle Vicari, who has spent the past 20 years working on a nearly completed documentary, “SHADOW MAN: The Sammy Nestico Story.”
His final album is due out in May. Titled “Every Star Above,” it’s a Billie Holiday tribute album Nestico made in late 2019 with veteran country-music singer Mandy Barnett as a reimagining of Holiday’s 1958 album, “Lady in Satin.”
“I’m grateful to have worked with one of the greatest arrangers of all times, maybe the last of the greatest,” Barnett said Tuesday from her Nashville home.
“Sammy was not able to attend the recording sessions for ‘Every Star Above’ in person. But he watched and listened online, in real time, and the orchestra gave him a standing ovation. Sammy was so happy, he cried. Every player in that orchestra was thrilled and so excited to be playing Sammy’s charts. I think they would have paid to be there.”