Edwin Finckel

Edwin A. Finckel (23 December 1917 – 7 May 2001) was an American jazz performer and arranger and a composer of songs and classical music. as the youngest of six children. His father was a patent attorney and both his parents were musical. All of his five elder siblings received musical training but Edwin was left to his own devices with regard to music, but his artistic talents won him a scholarship at the Corcoran School of Art. He did not give up his interest in art but he also found access to a piano and, within a year, he had taught himself to play, albeit unconventionally and without the ability to read music. Finckel took to jazz although he also showed skill as a tennis player while still a teenager.

Finckel was well regarded for his ability to improvise music and he went on to arrange others and later composed over 200 of his own melodies. His best known song may be "Where Is the One", which was recorded by Frank Sinatra on his Where Are You? album.

Finckel wrote songs for the 1945 film George White's Scandals. The photo illustrated here shows Finckel posing for a magazine picture where he has been chosen as a representative of the musical "Modern School" in 1947.

Finckel and his wife, Helen, ran a summer camp for 17 years until 1980 called "Point Counter Point" and it continued under new management after they gave up that commitment.

A resident of Madison, New Jersey, he died there in 2001.