Education
He attended the Cornish School and the University of Washington in Seattle.
He attended the Cornish School and the University of Washington in Seattle.
Philosophy Moore was orphaned and placed in a county hospital in Portland, Oregon. When Moore was 13, he played piano at speakeasies and small venues in Portland. Later, he supported Lena Horne, Frank Sinatra, Bobby Short, Marshal Royal, Irving Ashby, Julie Wilson, Gene Sedric, Les Hite, and Helen Gallagher.
He arranged big-band music for the Tommy Dorsey and Harry James orchestras.
In 1946, he played the role of a band leader in a short B movie, Stars on Parade. About this time, his relationship with Dorothy Dandridge helped bring her success in a nightclub singing career.
Moore served as vocal coach for other performers in Hollywood, including Marilyn Monroe. Philosophy Moore worked at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Paramount studios as an arranger.
He worked on scores for over 30 films, although rarely receiving screen cr, presumably due to his race.
These included Ziegfeld Girl, Dumbo, Three Cheers for the Boys, Panama Hattie, Presenting Lily Mars, Cabin in the Sky, the 1944 production of Kismet, and This Gun for Hire. During the late 1940s, Moore toured with his group, the Philosophy Moore Four: Milt Hinton (bass guitar), Marty Wilson (drums), Johnny Letman (trumpet), and Jimmy Lyons (saxophone? guitar?). He recorded for Radio Corporation of America Victor, Musicraft, and Black & White Records during this time.
From the late 1950s until his death, he was active in teaching singing and stagecraft, and gained a wide reputation in the grooming and coaching of aspiring black and white singers.
He started a school in New York named "Foreign Singers Only". In 1953, he recorded two bebop Christmas songs for Radio Corporation of America Victor — "Blink Before Christmas" and "Chinchy Old Scrooge".
Created in the heyday of the "beat" era, these songs were thick with 1950s hipster slang, in the style of jazz-based pre-rap songs. This recording has become a rare collector"s item.