After taking piano lessons as a youngster, Overton realized he'd have to travel beyond his small Midwestern town to find the kind of music instruction he wanted. His high school music teacher recognized Overton's gift and recommended he attend The Chicago Musical College after graduation. Overton studied theory and composition there from 1940 to 1942. He then entered the armed services and served in overseas combat duty with the U.S. 3rd Armored Division until 1945. It was during his time in the service that he learned to play jazz. On discharge from the army, Overton continued his musical studies at The Juilliard School of Music, studying composition with Vincent Persichetti. He graduated in 1951 with an M.S. degree, then became a member of the faculty there. In 1954 Overton moved into a New York City loft at 821 Sixth Avenue, known as the Jazz Loft, where he lived alongside legendary photographer W. Eugene Smith, musicians Dick Cary and Jimmy Stevenson, painter and other established and rising musicians and artists. This provided the perfect setting for the musicians to jam and learn together. Smith recorded many of these sessions, which were released in October 2000 as part of the Jazz Loft Project, a large ongoing project involving Smith's photos and tapes from that period. While Overton was writing classical compositions, he was also deeply immersed in jazz, and recorded with such jazz notables as Stan Getz, Duke Jordan, Jimmy Raney and Teddy Charles. Thelonious Monk selected him to score his piano works for orchestra; a performance of these compositions in New York City was recorded live on February 28, 1959 and released on the albumThe Thelonious Monk Orchestra at Town Hall. In 1963, Monk recorded a second live album with orchestral arrangements by Overton at the New York Philharmonic Hall, released as Big Band and Quartet in Concert. In later years, Overton taught at the Yale School of Music and the New School of Social Research. He received awards from The Koussevitzky Foundation and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
Death
Overton died on November 24, 1972, aged 52, from cirrhosis of the liver. Just a few months earlier, his opera Huckleberry Finn, commissioned by the Barney Jaffin Foundation, was presented by The Juilliard Opera Company.
Family
Overton married Nancy Swain in 1949, with whom he had two sons, Richard Adair Overton and Steven Swain Overton.
