Torrie Zito, Pianist and Jazz-Pop Arranger, Dies at 76 Torrie Zito, a versatile arranger who worked with swingers like Bobby Darin, Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra as well as younger performers like John Lennon, Sinead O'Connor and Clay Aiken, died on Thursday at his home in Manhattan. He was 76. The cause was emphysema, his stepson, Alan Merrill, said. Mr. Zito, who started out as a jazz pianist in the bebop mold of Bud Powell, found lasting success as an arranger and orchestrator proficient in a wide variety of styles, with a special flair for string writing. After working with Perry Como on his album "Lightly Latin" (1966) and with the flutist Herbie Mann on "The Herbie Mann String Album" (1967), to take two examples from early in his arranging career, he provided the string orchestrations for the John Lennon album "Imagine." This adaptability put him in demand with singers as different as Morgana King, Liza Minnelli, Carly Simon and the operatic baritone Samuel Ramey. He also did arranging for Doc Severinsen's band on "The Tonight Show." His most enduring musical relationship was with Mr. Bennett, who hired him as a pianist, conductor and arranger in 1967. For the next seven years, Mr. Zito toured with Mr. Bennett. Their work together can be heard on more than a dozen Bennett albums, most recently on "A Swingin" Christmas," which was released last year and has been nominated for a Grammy Award. In an e-mail message, Mr. Bennett said that Mr. Zito "gave me the greatest musical education I ever had." Torrie Zito was born on Oct. 12, 1933, in Utica, N.Y. He was mostly self-taught as a pianist and while still a teenager began playing in local clubs, usually as an accompanist. In his early 20s he moved to Manhattan, where he took classes at the Manhattan School of Music and came to the attention of the renowned arranger Marion Evans, who taught him informally. Mr. Zito's work with the saxophonist James Moody on the album "Moody With Strings" (1961) and with Darin on the album "Love Swings" (1961) led to projects with Mann and with Como on "The Perry Como Show" and on record. Soon after, he teamed up with Mr. Bennett. "I became more interested in the ballad kind of writing for orchestra, as opposed to jazz band, or even jazz band and orchestra combined," Mr. Zito told the writer Les Tomkins in 1974, in an interview that can now be found on the Web site Jazz Professional. When I got really attuned to the orchestral thing, I was greatly influenced by the Impressionists - Debussy, Ravel, Fauré, etc. - and somehow I tried to marry that within the pop thing. His gauzy, Impressionist-influenced arrangements for Ms. King on the album "A Taste of Honey" (1964) caught the ear of Sinatra, who hired him to arrange two songs, for a 50-piece orchestra, from the 1965 musical "Skyscraper": "Everybody Has the Right to Be Wrong" and "I Only Miss Her When I Think of Her." Mr. Zito often collaborated on recordings with his wife, the jazz singer Helen Merrill, who survives him. In addition to his stepson, Alan, of Manhattan, his survivors include a brother, the drummer Ronnie Zito, of Oradell, N.J., and a daughter, Lisa, of Manhattan. Pop singers venturing into retro territory made a beeline for Mr. Zito, who did arrangements for Carly Simon's album "Film Noir" (1997) and George Michael's "Songs From the Last Century" (1999). More recently he did arrangements for Mr. Aiken's "Merry Christmas With Love" (2004).