Steve Rawlins

Steve Rawlins (born September 5, 1954) was born in Mineola, New York to parents Gloria (née Gluck) and Herbert Rawitz. His father was an aerospace engineer that worked on NASA's Project Gemini. Rawlins is the second born of three siblings. He began taking piano lessons at six years old and began playing the trumpet at nine years old and played both instruments consistently throughout his childhood.

He and his family relocated to Los Angeles, California in 1965 when Rawlins was eleven years old. His parents frequented live CBS variety television show tapings as a part of the audience and sat next to the orchestra which influenced Rawlins in choosing a career as a professional musician. He attended University High School (Los Angeles) where the school's big band singer was Lorna Luft (daughter of Judy Garland) and Rawlins wrote some of his earliest arrangements for her to sing. His music teacher John Magruder, (who played baritone saxophone with Don Ellis) mentored him in music arranging and career direction. He graduated high school in 1972.

While attending CSUN, (California State University at Northridge) Rawlins saw a notice on a bulletin board that composer/arranger Sammy Nestico was teaching a big band and was looking for musicians at nearby Pierce College. Rawlins joined the band for the next two years learning much from Nestico in advanced composition and orchestration techniques.

In 1974 Rawlins played keyboards with a top 40 band touring throughout Western Canada. Upon returning to Los Angeles in 1975 he began writing music for The Merv Griffin Show and was offered a position as a staff arranger and music librarian. Griffin's featured trumpet player, Jack Sheldon, introduced Rawlins to Benny Goodman to write arrangements that were featured in his 40th Anniversary Concert at Carnegie Hall.

In 1979, Rawlins was hired by John Davidson (entertainer) as an arranger at his John Davidson's Singer's Summer Camp (JDSSC) on Catalina Island then hired him to write for his show in Las Vegas and Rawlins went on to compose and arrange music for his The John Davidson Show, which aired for two years.

He continued to freelance as a musician, composer and arranger for various commercials, TV shows, and recording projects.

[11]

In 1995 while attending the NAMM Show Rawlins met John Haag, who was the president of Creative Concepts Publishing. Haag published Rawlins' How To Get Real With A Fake Book[12] Shortly thereafter Hal Leonard LLC bought out Creative Concepts Publishing and hired Haag as a consultant who oversaw the rest of Rawlins' Hal Leonard releases.[13][14]