- Tadd Dameron
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Tadd Dameron 
Portrait of Tadd Dameron, New York, N.Y., between 1946 and 1948.Background information Birth name Tadley Ewing Peake Dameron Born February 21, 1917 Origin Cleveland, Ohio Died March 8, 1965 (aged 48) Genres Jazz Occupations Composer
arranger
pianistInstruments Piano Tadley Ewing Peake "Tadd" Dameron (February 21, 1917 – March 8, 1965) was an American jazz composer, arranger and pianist. Saxophonist Dexter Gordon called Dameron the "romanticist" of the bop movement,[1] while reviewer Scott Yanow writes that Dameron was the "definitive arranger/composer of the bop era".[2]
Contents
Biography
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Dameron was the most influential arranger of the bebop era, but also wrote charts for swing and hard bop players. The bands he arranged for included those of Count Basie, Artie Shaw, Jimmie Lunceford, Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Eckstine, and Sarah Vaughan. He and lyricist Carl Sigman wrote "If You Could See Me Now" for Sarah Vaughan and it became one of her first signature songs. According to the composer, his greatest influences were George Gershwin and Duke Ellington.[3]
In the late 1940s, Dameron wrote arrangements for the big band of Dizzy Gillespie, who gave the première of his large-scale orchestral piece Soulphony at Carnegie Hall in 1948. Also in 1948, Dameron led his own group in New York, which included Fats Navarro; the following year he was at the Paris Jazz Fair with Miles Davis. From 1961 he scored for recordings by Milt Jackson, Sonny Stitt, and Blue Mitchell.[4]
He also arranged and played for rhythm and blues musician Bull Moose Jackson. Also playing for Jackson at the time was Benny Golson, who also was to become a jazz composer; Golson has said Dameron was the most important influence on his writing. Dameron composed several bop standards, including "Hot House", "Our Delight", "Good Bait" (composed for Count Basie),[3] and "Lady Bird". His bands featured leading players such as Fats Navarro, Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins, and Wardell Gray.
After forming another group of his own with Clifford Brown in 1953, Dameron developed an addiction to narcotics toward the end of his career. He served time (1959–1961) in federal prison in Lexington, KY. Dameron suffered from cancer and had several heart attacks before he died at the age of 48 of cancer in 1965.
Legacy
Dameron has been the subject of many tributes since his death:
In the 1980s, Philly Joe Jones, drummer for the Miles Davis Quintet, and trumpeter Don Sickler founded Dameronia, a tribute band to Dameron.[5]
Continuum : Mad About Tadd: The Music of Tadd Dameron is an album released in 1982 by a group consisting of Slide Hampton, Jimmy Heath, Ron Carter, Art Taylor, Kenny Barron. The LP has since been reissued on CD.
In 1975, jazz pianist Barry Harris recorded Barry Harris Plays Tadd Dameron for Xanadu Records.
In 2007, pianist Richard "Tardo" Hammer recorded "Look Stop and Listen: The Music of Tadd Dameron" for Sharp Nine Records.
Discography
As leader or co-leader
- 1948: The Dameron Band (Featuring Fats Navarro) (Blue Note)
- 1949: Anthropology (Spotlite)
- 1949: Cool Boppin´ (Fresh Sound) with Miles Davis, Kai Winding, Sahib Shihab, Kenny Clarke
- 1949: The Miles Davis and Dameron Quartet in Paris - Festival International du Jazz, May 1949 (Columbia; issued on LP, 1977)
- 1953: A Study in Dameronia (Prestige)
- 1956: Fontainebleau (Prestige)
- 1956: Mating Call with John Coltrane (Prestige)
- 1962: The Magic Touch (Riverside)
- 1995: The Complete Blue Note and Capitol Recordings of Fats Navarro and Tadd Dameron (Blue Note; reissue of above 1949 recording date)
References
- ^ Nisenson, Eric (1996). 'Round About Midnight: A Portrait of Miles Davis. Da Capo Press. p. 65. ISBN 0306806843.
- ^ Yanow, Scott (2008) "Tadd Dameron biography", AllMusic.
- ^ a b Rosenthal, David, H.. Hard Bop: Jazz and Black Music 1955-1965. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195058690.
- ^ Harrison, Max. "Dameron, Tadd." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. 2 Apr. 2011 <http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/07122>
- ^ Carr, Ian; Fairweather, Digby and Priestley, Brian Rough Guide to Jazz Rough Guides, 2004 ISBN 1843532565, 9781843532569 "Don Sickler" at Google Books
External links
Categories:- 1917 births
- 1965 deaths
- African American pianists
- American jazz composers
- American jazz pianists
- American music arrangers
- Blue Note Records artists
- Musicians from Ohio
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