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Van Alexander | Songwriter and arranger, 100

Van Alexander, 100, a musical jack-of-all-trades who co-wrote Ella Fitzgerald's biggest hit in the 1930s, led a swing band, composed arrangements for other bandleaders, and later became a composer and music director in Hollywood, died July 19 at a Los Angeles hospital. He had heart and kidney ailments, said his daughter Joyce Harris.

Van Alexander, 100, a musical jack-of-all-trades who co-wrote Ella Fitzgerald's biggest hit in the 1930s, led a swing band, composed arrangements for other bandleaders, and later became a composer and music director in Hollywood, died July 19 at a Los Angeles hospital. He had heart and kidney ailments, said his daughter Joyce Harris.

Mr. Alexander was a self-taught musician who grew up in New York during the early years of jazz and the swing era. He went on to be a busy behind-the-scenes figure in music studios, working with such stars as Dean Martin, Doris Day, Mickey Rooney, and Lena Horne.

As a teenager, Mr. Alexander played piano and led a band under his original name, Al Feldman. At age 20, he became a regular arranger for drummer Chick Webb, whose hard-swinging group bested Benny Goodman's in a now-famous Savoy Ballroom battle of the bands in 1938. Mr. Webb's singer was a young Ella Fitzgerald, who kept asking Alexander to write a song for her.

She suggested a variation on a nursery rhyme, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," and she and Mr. Alexander took joint credit as the song's composers.

"A-Tisket, A-Tasket" spent more than two months as the country's No. 1 song in 1938.

Mr. Alexander received a lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, the music publishing association, in 2002.

His wife of 72 years, Beth Baremore Alexander, died in 2011. In May, more than 200 people attended a party marking his his 100th birthday.

- Washington Post