American jazz saxophonist and visual artist, best known as a cutting-edge creator of electronically generated music.
Born on 31st December 1931 in Jersey City, New Jersey, New York, USA.
Died on 28th October 2004 in Malibu, California, USA (heart attack).
Mellé dreamed of becoming an engineer but his family couldn't afford it so he attended art school instead. Lying about his age, he started his military service aged 16 in the marines, spending time in California. Returning to New York he signed with Blue Note Records as a jazz performer aged 19. His artistic abilities led to album-cover paintings for Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins, as well as art-gallery showings in New York. Stepping into music, Mellé and his group The Electronauts debuted electronic jazz at the 1967 Monterey Jazz Festival. The following year, Verve released his Tome VI, the first all-electronic jazz album. His 1970 theme for Night Gallery was the first all-electronic main title for a TV series, and his music for 1971 sci-fi thriller The Andromeda Strain became the first all-synthesizer score for a feature film. In the 1970s and 1980s, Mellé composed traditional orchestral music for TV. He scored the TV movies My Sweet Charlie, That Certain Summer, four early episodes of Columbo and the first four episodes of the cult series Kolchak: The Night Stalker. His music lent itself to sci-fi and horror projects, including orchestral scores for the pilot of The Six Million Dollar Man and the four-hour Frankenstein: The True Story (1973), which he recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra. Mellé created landmark electronic scores for sci-fi TV movies including A Cold Night's Death and the four-hour World War III. He wrote and performed music for several telefilms dealing with sensational murders, including Fatal Vision; The Deliberate Stranger (about serial killer Ted Bundy); and The Case Of The Hillside Strangler.