Axel Stordahl

Axel Stordahl (August 8, 1913 – August 30, 1963) was a big band arranger who worked through the 1930s into the 1950s. Stordahl worked closely with Frank Sinatra in the 1940s during Sinatra's time with Columbia Records.

Biography in brief
Stordahl, worked with a minor trio of musicians known as the Three Esquires during his time in the early 1930s. Beforehand, however, he had been working alongside Bert Bloch and his orchestra. Stordahl signed onto Columbia records joining Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra in 1935. Soon after, he was working along with Sinatra during this time with Columbia, arranging nearly three-fourths of Sinatra's Columbia repertoire.

Stordahl, in 1945, was credited for his orchestrations in the award-winning Anchors Aweigh, a film starring Sinatra alongside Gene Kelly.

As Sinatra moved away from Columbia Records to Capitol Records to work with other collaborators such as Nelson Riddle and Gordon Jenkins, Stordahl began working with several other artists including Bing Crosby, Doris Day, and Dean Martin among several others. In 1951, Stordahl married June Hutton, one of the Pied Pipers, a small vocal pack that worked under Columbia Records during the 1940s.

Stordahl's final studio performance was with Sinatra during 1960 for his seemingly final Capitol album, Point of No Return. Stordahl died of cancer at the age of fifty in 1963.

With Frank Sinatra

 * The Voice of Frank Sinatra (1946)
 * Songs by Sinatra (1947)
 * Christmas Songs by Sinatra (1948)
 * Frankly Sentimental (1949)
 * Dedicated to You (1950)
 * Point of No Return (1961)

With other artists

 * Gisele (1958) with Gisele MacKenzie
 * Tea For Two (1950) with Doris Day