Richard Carpenter

Jazz producer, manager and dubious "songwriter". Associated with Chet Baker, Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Stitt, Jimmy Mundy and Solid State Records (2). Not a performing musician himself, he took the simple outline from the 1950 single "Gravy", by Gene Ammons, and structured a blues number around it as "Walkin'"; Miles Davis first recorded the arrangement in 1952 as "Weirdo" for Blue Note, crediting himself as composer, but decided to re-record the tune for Prestige on April 29, 1954, with Carpenter now receiving composer credit.