Roger Dawson
Encyclopedia
Roger Dawson is a jazz percussionist, conga
drummer, bandleader and jazz
composer
. He was a leading jazz and salsa disc jockey in the USA and acknowledged as at the forefront of New York's Salsa music
explosion of the seventies and early eighties. He was the creator of the long running "Salsa Meets Jazz" concert series at New York's Village Gate club.
Roger Ward Dawson was born in St. Louis, Missouri (according to the 1940 U.S. census) to Elizabeth Ward Dawson born in Ambler, Pennsylvania and Richard Sandford Dawson (a sales engineer executive) born in Buffalo, New York. Roger was his mother's first born son with two older half brothers Richard Jr. and John from his father's late first wife. His younger sister Deborah Zoe died in 2005. His mother played a little classical piano and passed on her love of classical music, Gershwin and the swing bands. His father also diddled with a clarinet due to his love of Bennie Goodman and Artie Shaw. Seeing that Roger strongly reacted to music, his parents bought him his first professional snare drum at the age of five.
After moving to Evanston, Illinois, 6 year old Roger would follow the Northwestern University Band from the University, which was literally across the street from the Dawson home, to their practice field marching behind the band while playing his snare drum and became sort of a mascot to the band even making the local papers where he appeared sitting on the lap of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz after arriving marching and playing his snare drum behind the band at a ceremony honoring the World War ll Five Star Admiral. The family moved to Southern California in 1947 where his father opened his own business. Roger continued to practice on his drums and joined a jazz performance group while attending La Canada Junior High School at the age of twelve. During that time his influences were the black blues players like Jimmy Reed
, Muddy Waters
and Little Walter
which later evolved to the black R&B horn bands of the mid-fifties such as Earl Bostic
, and the local Los Angeles R&B bands of Big Jay McNeely
, Johnny Otis
and Joe Houston that he heard on the late night Los Angeles R&B radio show of Dick Hugg
, "Huggy Boy". At the age of twelve, Roger saw many of the R&B greats, Bo Diddley
, T-Bone Walker
, Chuck Berry
, Little Walter
, McNeely, and Chuck Higgins
in concert at the famous Shrine Auditorium
R&B shows of that time.
At fourteen, he was influenced by the jazz and Latin music radio shows of Gene Norman over KFI and Chico Sesma respectively on radio station KALI. Roger recalls going to Gene Norman's concerts at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium to see Erroll Garner
, Miles Davis
with John Coltrane
and the "West Coast Jazz
" sounds of Howard Rumsey
's Lighthouse All Stars, Shorty Rogers
and the Giants and the Gerry Mulligan
, Chet Baker
Quartet. Gene Norman also owned "The Crescendo" Jazz club on the Sunset Strip
in Hollywood where on his fourteenth birthday Roger met vibraphonist Cal Tjader
and the great Cuban Conguero Armando Peraza
who so impressed Roger that he pleaded for Peraza to begin teaching him Afro-Cuban
conga drum technique.
At fifteen, Roger transferred to John Muir High School in Pasadena, California
where he met fellow students Vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson
, Bassist Herbie Lewis
and pianist Nat Brown; with Roger on drums, together they formed a quartet called "The Jazz Monitors" and performed at venues in the Los Angeles area until they graduated from John Muir in 1958.
Quartet who had received a scholarship to the Sorbonne
in Paris. Bob and Roger travelled to Paris where Bob brought Roger into the Blue Note Jazz Club where they performed with the legendary bebop pianist Bud Powell
.
Leaving the service in 1961 Roger returned to California and the La Jolla/San Diego area where he went to work for jazz radio station KFMX as a deejay and account executive. In 1963 Roger became the General Manager of San Diego radio station KJLM which he changed to a 24 hour "straight ahead" jazz format changing the call letters to KDIG and won the Billboard Magazine Jazz Station award in June 1965.
In November 1966, after a conversation with John Coltrane
at the "It Club" in Los Angeles in 1965, Roger gave up his General Manager radio position and went to New York to play jazz, joining his high school pals Herbie Lewis
and Bobby Hutcherson
who had moved to New York while he had been in the service. He lived on Harlem
's Sugar Hill
and pursued his studies of the conga drum and Afro Cuban percussion with Jose Valiente, Carlos Valdes
(Patato), Jose Mangual, Frankie Malabe and Milton Cardona. He joined Frankie Dante's Orquesta Flamboyan Salsa group on congas and performed with many of the top salsa bands from Tito Puente
(see photo). Machito
, Tipica 73
, Fajardo, Orquesta Broadway, Angel Canales, Dave Valentin
, Joe Cuba
, Cortijo just to name a few. He co-composed the salsa tune "Iguales" with Rubén Blades
that was recorded by Orquesta Guarere.
Roger continued to be active with respect to his jazz roots performing with Jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal
, Ray Nance
, the Gil Evans
Orchestra, McCoy Tyner
, Roy Haynes
, Hannibal Marvin Peterson, Kenny Barron
, Billy Harper
, Cedar Walton
, Herbie Lewis
, Freddie Hubbard
, Bobby Hutcherson
, Sam Rivers
, Rashied Ali
, Rahsaan Roland Kirk
, Hilton Ruiz
with George Coleman
and toured with jazz saxophonist Archie Shepp
in several of Archie's avant-garde
bands that featured such players as Jimmy Garrison
, Beaver Harris
, Dave Burrell
, Grachan Moncur III
, Walter Davis Jr., Art Taylor
, Hilton Ruiz
, John Betsch
and Santi Debriano
; recording with Carla Bley
and the Jazz Composers Orchestra (the epic "Escalator Over The Hill
") with Don Cherry
, Charlie Haden
, Gato Barbieri
, Paul Motian
and many others.
, Frankie Malabe, Milton Cardona, Tommy Lopez and others into the jazz idioms of the 1960s and 1970s including the Free Jazz Avant Garde movement started in early 1960s Los Angeles by Ornette Coleman
.
The now defunct Slug's, located on East 3rd Street, was the Mecca for these New York Avant Garde musicians and Roger's long association with Archie Shepp
's band at Slug's together with drummer Beaver Harris
aggressive high energy percussive forays took the band into exploration of improvised non traditional "rolling" or "rubato" tempos that could surge or recede based upon interaction with the improvisation of the other players. This led Roger to pursue further experimental "free" playing with Sam Rivers
, The Jazz Composers Orchestra and the Ted Danial Energy Big Band which performed weekly at Rashied Ali
's SoHo Jazz Club "Ali's Alley" during the late 70's.
Roger adapted non-traditional tempos such as 7/4 and 9/4 creating patterns incorporating the elements of authentic Afro Cuban conga technique into these non-traditional rhythms. He utilized mixtures of 4/4. 6/8, 12/8, 7/4 and 9/4 in many of his own compositions with his own group with close friend Hilton Ruiz
who was also interested in expanding the "typical" Jazz or Afro-Cuban rhythm structures.
Due to his multiethnic audience, salsa album sales began to soar. While Roger Dawson was on WRVR the New York salsa club scene flourished with clubs located in every borough of New York, nearby New Jersey's Latin metro areas and most of these clubs often competed by featuring multiple live 11 and 12 piece name salsa bands most nights of the week. Many critics feel he was responsible for putting salsa on the map as he was the only deejay on New York commercial FM radio playing this music at that time. (John J O'Connor and Robert Palmer, N.Y. Times)
In addition to playing historical cuts of vintage Cuban (Antonio Arcano, Benny More
, Orquesta Aragón
, Sonora Matancera
, Cachao, Los Papines), and Puerto Rican music and Bomba and Plena rhythms (Ramito, Mon Rivera
, and others) while explaining the evolution of modern salsa, he also broke the new albums of New York's emerging roster of Salsa performers.
Roger created a blend of Latin jazz cuts by artists such as Cal Tjader
, Dizzy Gillespie
, Chico O’Farrill, Mongo Santamaría
, Mark Weinstein (who contributed one of his originals as one of Roger's themes), Dave Valentin
, Clare Fischer
, Poncho Sanchez
, Grover Washington and others mixed with the more "tipico" singer dominated Salsa bands. Often called "Rogelio" (Roger in Spanish), Chino y su Conjunto Melao wrote one of his theme songs: "Rogelio Tiene La Salsa" which became a salsa standard at the time. Roger also pressured the record companies to produce quality product. For example, to save a few bucks some record companies had produced albums where the piano was out of tune which Roger refused to give air play. He was also instrumental in exposing new and innovative salsa performers and projects such as "Grupo Folklorico Y Experimental Nuevayorquino", Manny Oquendo's Conjunto Libre, the sophisticated work of pianist arranger Jorge Millet, and the original bi-lingual approach of Angel Canales who could not get airplay on other commercial stations until his exposure on Roger's show broke his albums.
The readers of Latin New York Magazine, New York's monthly magazine for salsa enthusiasts, voted Roger Dawson "The best Radio Show and Deejay" for four years in a row from 1976 to 1979. (Latin New York Music Awards) He was awarded a "Citation" by Manhattan Borough President Andrew Stein for his work "in support of numerous vital community projects" such as Johnny Colon
's East Harlem Music School which took Hispanic kids off the streets of Spanish Harlem and taught them how to play Salsa.
In the early sixties the legendary Symphony Sid
Torin had a Latin show on late night AM radio and hosted Latin Music Monday night concerts at the Village Gate. Because of his jazz background, Roger came up with an updated concept of having a jazz soloist sit in with a salsa band and created the name "Salsa Meets Jazz". He then took this concept to the Village Gate as host for his weekly Monday night concerts in which he often participated on congas. Roger's "Salsa Meets Jazz" concert series featured such legendary jazz figures as Dexter Gordon
, Sonny Stitt
, Dizzy Gillespie
, James Moody
, Frank Wess
, Pharaoh Sanders, Slide Hampton
, Roger's high school pal Bobby Hutcherson
and at that time, the young Wynton Marsalis
. The weekly concert series at the "Gate" ran from the late seventies well into the eighties. Although originated by Roger Dawson, the name "Salsa Meets Jazz" can still be seen as promoters "borrow" his term to promote concerts or albums.
Roger was often the host at Salsa Festivals and Fania All-Stars
concerts at Madison Square Garden
and in one of the concerts he was featured as a guest soloist on congas with Johnny "Dandy" Rodriguez Jr and his Tipica 73
all star conga section featuring Johnny, Cachete Maldonado and Jose Grajales. He also hosted several Latin Jazz concerts at the Beacon Theater with Cal Tjader
that featured Cal reunited with Willie Bobo
and Mongo Santamaría
.
In 1979, Roger was aboard a private chartered jet to Havana
, Cuba
to participate in the historic "Havana Jam" cultural exchange concerts held at the Karl Marx Theater in Havana. He accompanied the CBS Jazz All Stars, Dexter Gordon
, Stan Getz
, Woody Shaw
, Tony Williams, Willie Bobo
, Percy Heath
, Hubert Laws
, Cedar Walton
, Jimmy Heath
, Arthur Blythe
, Bobby Hutcherson
, John McLaughlin
, Eric Gale
, Weather Report
with Wayne Shorter
, Joe Zawinul
, Jaco Pastorius
and Peter Erskine
, The Fania All-Stars
, with Johnny Pacheco
, Héctor Lavoe
, Rubén Blades
, Pete "El Conde" Rodriguez, Roberto Roena
and Papo Lucca
, along with Billy Joel
, Kris Kristofferson
, Rita Coolidge
and Stephen Stills
.
Roger and fellow conguero Eddie Montalvo, who was with the Fania All-Stars, were invited to join in during an epic conga jam hosted by the Cuban band Irakere
led by Chucho Valdés
which at that time featured Paquito D'Rivera
and Arturo Sandoval
before they were eventually able to defect from Cuba and move to the United States. (D'Rivera in 1981 and Sandoval in 1990) Roger was also able to play with the Abreu brothers (Los Papines) during the trip.
The trip had to be arranged in secret under very tight security as the right wing Cuban community in the U.S. had threatened those that would participate in cultural exchanges with the Castro government at that time. The U.S. State Department had also warned that those who traveled to Cuba did so at their own risk as there were no formal relations between the U.S. and Cuba. After arrival in Havana, Cuban authorities maintained tight surveillance and control of the Americans. Care had to be exercised in conversations with many Cuban musicians who confided that they wanted to defect to the U.S.
In September 1980 without any notice Viacom changed the format of WRVR from jazz to country music with the famous segue of September eighth at 10:00 am of Charlie Mingus to Dolly Parton and that was the end of Roger Dawson's successful Jazz and Salsa shows on WRVR-FM which had often been sold out of 15 commercial spots per hour at the highest rates on the station. Hoping to acquire some of that revenue Roger was hired by all Spanish language AM radio station WJIT as the only "bi-lingual" program at that station with Roger continuing to play his salsa hits. However the low quality of AM non-stereo radio music never generated the ratings of his FM show and his show was discontinued by WJIT in 1982.
, piano, Claudio Roditi
, brass, John Purcell
, reeds, Anthony Cox, bass, John Betsch
, drums and Milton Cardona on percussion. (Reviewed by Jon Pareles, N.Y. Times and Tony Sabournin, Latin N.Y.)This group was featured on his album Roger Dawson Septet "New York Time" recorded by the legendary Rudy Van Gelder
at his Englewood New Jersey studio.
In 2010, Roger moved to Metairie, Louisiana, Adjacent to New Orleans. He still composes, plays the piano and plans to become involved with jazz education and the development of jazz Public Broadcasting in New Orleans.
Conga
The conga, or more properly the tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed Cuban drum with African antecedents. It is thought to be derived from the Makuta drums or similar drums associated with Afro-Cubans of Central African descent. A person who plays conga is called a conguero...
drummer, bandleader and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
. He was a leading jazz and salsa disc jockey in the USA and acknowledged as at the forefront of New York's Salsa music
Salsa music
Salsa music is a genre of music, generally defined as a modern style of playing Cuban Son, Son Montuno, and Guaracha with touches from other genres of music...
explosion of the seventies and early eighties. He was the creator of the long running "Salsa Meets Jazz" concert series at New York's Village Gate club.
Early life
After moving to Evanston, Illinois, 6 year old Roger would follow the Northwestern University Band from the University, which was literally across the street from the Dawson home, to their practice field marching behind the band while playing his snare drum and became sort of a mascot to the band even making the local papers where he appeared sitting on the lap of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz after arriving marching and playing his snare drum behind the band at a ceremony honoring the World War ll Five Star Admiral. The family moved to Southern California in 1947 where his father opened his own business. Roger continued to practice on his drums and joined a jazz performance group while attending La Canada Junior High School at the age of twelve. During that time his influences were the black blues players like Jimmy Reed
Jimmy Reed
Mathis James "Jimmy" Reed was an American blues musician and songwriter, notable for bringing his distinctive style of blues to mainstream audiences. Reed was a major player in the field of electric blues, as opposed to the more acoustic-based sound of many of his contemporaries...
, Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...
and Little Walter
Little Walter
Little Walter, born Marion Walter Jacobs , was an American blues harmonica player, whose revolutionary approach to his instrument has earned him comparisons to Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix, for innovation and impact on succeeding generations...
which later evolved to the black R&B horn bands of the mid-fifties such as Earl Bostic
Earl Bostic
Earl Bostic was an American jazz and rhythm and blues alto saxophonist, and a pioneer of the post-war American Rhythm and Blues style. He had a number of popular hits such as "Flamingo", "Harlem Nocturne", "Temptation", "Sleep", "Special Delivery Stomp", and "Where or When", which showed off his...
, and the local Los Angeles R&B bands of Big Jay McNeely
Big Jay McNeely
Big Jay McNeely is an American rhythm and blues saxophonist.-Biography:...
, Johnny Otis
Johnny Otis
Johnny Otis is an American singer, musician, talent scout, disc jockey, composer, arranger, recording artist, record producer, vibraphonist, drummer, percussionist, bandleader, and impresario.He is commonly referred to as The Godfather Of Rhythm And Blues.-Personal life:Otis, the son of Alexander...
and Joe Houston that he heard on the late night Los Angeles R&B radio show of Dick Hugg
Dick Hugg
Dick "Huggy Boy" Hugg was a radio disc jockey in Los Angeles, California. He was married to Sandy Hugg and had a son and three daughters.-Rock and Roll:...
, "Huggy Boy". At the age of twelve, Roger saw many of the R&B greats, Bo Diddley
Bo Diddley
Ellas Otha Bates , known by his stage name Bo Diddley, was an American rhythm and blues vocalist, guitarist, songwriter , and inventor...
, T-Bone Walker
T-Bone Walker
Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker was a critically acclaimed American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who was one of the most influential pioneers and innovators of the jump blues and electric blues sound. He is the first musician recorded playing blues with the...
, Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...
, Little Walter
Little Walter
Little Walter, born Marion Walter Jacobs , was an American blues harmonica player, whose revolutionary approach to his instrument has earned him comparisons to Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix, for innovation and impact on succeeding generations...
, McNeely, and Chuck Higgins
Chuck Higgins
Charles Williams Higgins was an American saxophonist. Higgins, who was noted for mixing elements of Latin Jazz with Blues, recorded in Los Angeles during the mid-fifties, notably for the Specialty, Combo and Doo-Tone labels, and is best remembered for the song "Pachuko Hop".Higgins relocated from...
in concert at the famous Shrine Auditorium
Shrine Auditorium
The Shrine Auditorium is a landmark large-event venue, in Los Angeles, California, USA. It is also the headquarters of the Al Malaikah Temple, a division of the Shriners.-History:...
R&B shows of that time.
At fourteen, he was influenced by the jazz and Latin music radio shows of Gene Norman over KFI and Chico Sesma respectively on radio station KALI. Roger recalls going to Gene Norman's concerts at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium to see Erroll Garner
Erroll Garner
Erroll Louis Garner was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. His best-known composition, the ballad "Misty", has become a jazz standard...
, Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
with John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
and the "West Coast Jazz
West coast jazz
West Coast jazz refers to various styles of jazz music that developed around Los Angeles and San Francisco during the 1950s. West Coast jazz is often seen as a sub-genre of cool jazz, which featured a less frenetic, calmer style than bebop or hard bop. The music tended to be more heavily arranged,...
" sounds of Howard Rumsey
Howard Rumsey
Howard Rumsey is a Californian bassist primarily known for his leadership of the Los Angeles group the Lighthouse All-Stars in the 1950s.-Life:...
's Lighthouse All Stars, Shorty Rogers
Shorty Rogers
Milton “Shorty” Rogers , born Milton Rajonsky in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, was one of the principal creators of West Coast jazz. He played both the trumpet and flugelhorn, and was in demand for his skills as an arranger. Rogers worked first as a professional musician with Will Bradley and...
and the Giants and the Gerry Mulligan
Gerry Mulligan
Gerald Joseph "Gerry" Mulligan was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and arranger. Though Mulligan is primarily known as one of the leading baritone saxophonists in jazz history – playing the instrument with a light and airy tone in the era of cool jazz – he was also...
, Chet Baker
Chet Baker
Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker, Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and singer.Though his music earned him a large following , Baker's popularity was due in part to his "matinee idol-beauty" and "well-publicized drug habit."He died in 1988 in Amsterdam, the...
Quartet. Gene Norman also owned "The Crescendo" Jazz club on the Sunset Strip
Sunset Strip
The Sunset Strip is the name given to the mile-and-a-half stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through West Hollywood, California. It extends from West Hollywood's eastern border with Hollywood at Harper Avenue, to its western border with Beverly Hills at Sierra Drive...
in Hollywood where on his fourteenth birthday Roger met vibraphonist Cal Tjader
Cal Tjader
Callen Radcliffe Tjader, Jr. a.k.a. Cal Tjader was a Latin jazz musician, though he also explored various other jazz idioms. Unlike other American jazz musicians who experimented with the music from Cuba, the Caribbean, and Latin America, he never abandoned it, performing it until his...
and the great Cuban Conguero Armando Peraza
Armando Peraza
Armando Peraza is a Latin jazz percussionist. Through his long associations with jazz pianist George Shearing, vibraphonist Cal Tjader and guitarist Carlos Santana, he has been internationally known from the 1950s through to the 1990s...
who so impressed Roger that he pleaded for Peraza to begin teaching him Afro-Cuban
Afro-Cuban
The term Afro-Cuban refers to Cubans of Sub Saharan African ancestry, and to historical or cultural elements in Cuba thought to emanate from this community...
conga drum technique.
At fifteen, Roger transferred to John Muir High School in Pasadena, California
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
where he met fellow students Vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson is a jazz vibraphone and marimba player. His vibraphone playing is suggestive of the style of Milt Jackson in its free-flowing melodicism, but his sense of harmony and group interaction is thoroughly modern...
, Bassist Herbie Lewis
Herbie Lewis
Herbie Lewis was an American hard bop double bassist.He played or recorded with many prominent jazz musicians, including Cannonball Adderley, Stanley Turrentine, Bobby Hutcherson, Freddie Hubbard, Harold Land, Jackie McLean, Archie Shepp, and McCoy Tyner.Herbie recorded his last CD Just a Lucky So...
and pianist Nat Brown; with Roger on drums, together they formed a quartet called "The Jazz Monitors" and performed at venues in the Los Angeles area until they graduated from John Muir in 1958.
Early radio career
Following high school Roger served in the U.S. Army and was an announcer for the Armed Forces radio network in Europe. On leave in Amsterdam Roger ran into Bob Whitlock, the original bassist for the Gerry MulliganGerry Mulligan
Gerald Joseph "Gerry" Mulligan was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and arranger. Though Mulligan is primarily known as one of the leading baritone saxophonists in jazz history – playing the instrument with a light and airy tone in the era of cool jazz – he was also...
Quartet who had received a scholarship to the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
in Paris. Bob and Roger travelled to Paris where Bob brought Roger into the Blue Note Jazz Club where they performed with the legendary bebop pianist Bud Powell
Bud Powell
Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell was an American Jazz pianist. Powell has been described as one of "the two most significant pianists of the style of modern jazz that came to be known as bop", the other being his friend and contemporary Thelonious Monk...
.
Leaving the service in 1961 Roger returned to California and the La Jolla/San Diego area where he went to work for jazz radio station KFMX as a deejay and account executive. In 1963 Roger became the General Manager of San Diego radio station KJLM which he changed to a 24 hour "straight ahead" jazz format changing the call letters to KDIG and won the Billboard Magazine Jazz Station award in June 1965.
Jazz and salsa musician
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
at the "It Club" in Los Angeles in 1965, Roger gave up his General Manager radio position and went to New York to play jazz, joining his high school pals Herbie Lewis
Herbie Lewis
Herbie Lewis was an American hard bop double bassist.He played or recorded with many prominent jazz musicians, including Cannonball Adderley, Stanley Turrentine, Bobby Hutcherson, Freddie Hubbard, Harold Land, Jackie McLean, Archie Shepp, and McCoy Tyner.Herbie recorded his last CD Just a Lucky So...
and Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson is a jazz vibraphone and marimba player. His vibraphone playing is suggestive of the style of Milt Jackson in its free-flowing melodicism, but his sense of harmony and group interaction is thoroughly modern...
who had moved to New York while he had been in the service. He lived on Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
's Sugar Hill
Sugar Hill
Sugar Hill commonly refers to Sugar Hill, Manhattan, a section of Harlem, New York City, New York, US. The term may also refer to:Places:* Sugar Hill in Modoc National Forest, California* Sugar Hill, Georgia* Sugar Hill, New Hampshire...
and pursued his studies of the conga drum and Afro Cuban percussion with Jose Valiente, Carlos Valdes
Carlos Valdes
Carlos Valdes was a Cuban-born American conga player. In 1955 he emigrated from Cuba to New York City where he played with Willie Bobo in Harlem. He was also known by the name "Patato". He invented and patented the tunable conga drum which revolutionized use of the instrument...
(Patato), Jose Mangual, Frankie Malabe and Milton Cardona. He joined Frankie Dante's Orquesta Flamboyan Salsa group on congas and performed with many of the top salsa bands from Tito Puente
Tito Puente
Tito Puente, , born Ernesto Antonio Puente, was a Latin jazz and Salsa musician. The son of native Puerto Ricans Ernest and Ercilia Puente, of Spanish Harlem in New York City, Puente is often credited as "El Rey de los Timbales" and "The King of Latin Music"...
(see photo). Machito
Machito
Machito , born as Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo, was an influential Latin jazz musician who helped refine Afro-Cuban jazz and create both Cubop and salsa music...
, Tipica 73
Tipica 73
Tipica 73 was a popular New York salsa band in the 1970s and early 1980s, formed with a number of musicians from Ray Barretto's band.Tipica 73's music was notable for its experimental style, and was the first US-based salsa orchestra to record in Cuba with the album Tipicá 73 En Cuba Intercambio...
, Fajardo, Orquesta Broadway, Angel Canales, Dave Valentin
Dave Valentin
Dave Valentin is a jazz flutist.He learned latin percussion first when he was a teenager, and then switched to flute. Valentin's teacher, Hubert Laws, suggested that he not double on saxophone because of his attractive sound on the flute. He studied at the Bronx Community College...
, Joe Cuba
Joe Cuba
Joe "Sonny" Cuba was a Puerto Rican musician who was considered to be the "Father of Latin Boogaloo".-Early years:...
, Cortijo just to name a few. He co-composed the salsa tune "Iguales" with Rubén Blades
Rubén Blades
Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna is a Panamanian salsa singer, songwriter, lawyer, actor, Latin jazz musician, and politician, performing musically most often in the Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz genres...
that was recorded by Orquesta Guarere.
Roger continued to be active with respect to his jazz roots performing with Jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal
Ahmad Jamal
Ahmad Jamal is an innovative and influential American jazz pianist, composer, and educator. According to Stanley Crouch, Jamal is second in importance in the development of jazz after 1945 only to Charlie Parker...
, Ray Nance
Ray Nance
Ray Willis Nance was a jazz trumpeter, violinist and singer.Nance is best known for his long association with Duke Ellington through most of the 1940s and 1950s, after he was hired to replace Cootie Williams in 1940...
, the Gil Evans
Gil Evans
Gil Evans was a jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader, active in the United States...
Orchestra, McCoy Tyner
McCoy Tyner
McCoy Tyner is a jazz pianist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet and a long solo career.-Early life:...
, Roy Haynes
Roy Haynes
Roy Owen Haynes is an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Haynes is among the most recorded drummers in jazz, and in a career lasting more than 60 years has played in a wide range of styles ranging from swing and bebop to jazz fusion and avant-garde jazz...
, Hannibal Marvin Peterson, Kenny Barron
Kenny Barron
Kenny Barron , is an American jazz pianist. He is the younger brother of tenor saxophonist Bill Barron, and known for his lyrical, adaptive style.-Biography:...
, Billy Harper
Billy Harper
Billy Harper is a Jazz saxophonist, "one of a generation of Coltrane-influenced tenor saxophonists" with a distinctively stern, hard-as-nails sound on his instrument.-Biography:...
, Cedar Walton
Cedar Walton
Cedar Anthony Walton, Junior is an American hard bop jazz pianist.-Biography:Walton grew up in Dallas, Texas. His mother was an aspiring concert pianist, and was Walton's initial teacher. She also took him to jazz performances around Dallas...
, Herbie Lewis
Herbie Lewis
Herbie Lewis was an American hard bop double bassist.He played or recorded with many prominent jazz musicians, including Cannonball Adderley, Stanley Turrentine, Bobby Hutcherson, Freddie Hubbard, Harold Land, Jackie McLean, Archie Shepp, and McCoy Tyner.Herbie recorded his last CD Just a Lucky So...
, Freddie Hubbard
Freddie Hubbard
Frederick Dewayne "Freddie" Hubbard was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known primarily for playing in the bebop, hard bop and post bop styles from the early 1960s and on...
, Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson is a jazz vibraphone and marimba player. His vibraphone playing is suggestive of the style of Milt Jackson in its free-flowing melodicism, but his sense of harmony and group interaction is thoroughly modern...
, Sam Rivers
Sam Rivers
Samuel Carthorne Rivers , is an American jazz musician and composer. He performs on soprano and tenor saxophones, bass clarinet, flute, harmonica and piano....
, Rashied Ali
Rashied Ali
Rashied Ali, born Robert Patterson was an American free jazz and avant-garde jazz drummer best known for playing with John Coltrane in the last years of Coltrane's life.-Biography:...
, Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Rahsaan Roland Kirk was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist who played tenor saxophone, flute and many other instruments...
, Hilton Ruiz
Hilton Ruiz
Hilton Ruiz was a Puerto Rican American jazz pianist in the Afro-Cuban jazz mold, but was also a talented bebop player....
with George Coleman
George Coleman
George Edward Coleman is an American hard bop saxophonist, bandleader, and composer, known chiefly for his work with Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock in the 1960s.-Biography:...
and toured with jazz saxophonist Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp is a prominent African-American jazz saxophonist. Shepp is best known for his passionately Afrocentric music of the late 1960s, which focused on highlighting the injustices faced by the African-Americans, as well as for his work with the New York Contemporary Five, Horace Parlan, and...
in several of Archie's avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
bands that featured such players as Jimmy Garrison
Jimmy Garrison
Jimmy Garrison was an American jazz double bassist born in Miami, Florida. He was best known through his long association with John Coltrane from 1961–1967.-Biography:...
, Beaver Harris
Beaver Harris
William Godvin "Beaver" Harris was an American jazz drummer, who worked extensively with Archie Shepp.-Biography:...
, Dave Burrell
Dave Burrell
Davis Burrell is an American jazz instrumentalist, most notably on the piano. He has worked for many jazz musicians including Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Marion Brown and David Murray.- Biography :...
, Grachan Moncur III
Grachan Moncur III
Grachan Moncur III is an American jazz trombonist who has mostly played free jazz, as well as being a prolific composer. He is the son of jazz bassist Grachan Moncur II and the nephew of jazz saxophonist Al Cooper.-Biography:...
, Walter Davis Jr., Art Taylor
Art Taylor
Arthur S. Taylor, Jr. was an American jazz drummer of the hard bop school.After playing in the bands of Howard McGhee, Coleman Hawkins, Buddy DeFranco, Bud Powell, and George Wallington from 1948 to 1957, he formed his own group, the Wailers...
, Hilton Ruiz
Hilton Ruiz
Hilton Ruiz was a Puerto Rican American jazz pianist in the Afro-Cuban jazz mold, but was also a talented bebop player....
, John Betsch
John Betsch
John Betsch is an American jazz drummer.Betsch began on percussion at age nine, and attended Fisk University, Berklee College of Music and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. After playing in organ trios, he released an album as a leader, Earth Blossom, in 1975...
and Santi Debriano
Santi Debriano
Santi Wilson Debriano is a jazz bassist.Debriano was raised in Brooklyn, having moved there with his family at age four. He studied composition at Union College in New York, then attended the New England Conservatory of Music and Wesleyan University...
; recording with Carla Bley
Carla Bley
Carla Bley, née Borg, is an American jazz composer, pianist, organist and band leader. An important figure in the Free Jazz movement of the 1960s, she is perhaps best known for her jazz opera Escalator Over The Hill , as well as a book of compositions that have been performed by many other...
and the Jazz Composers Orchestra (the epic "Escalator Over The Hill
Escalator over the Hill
Escalator over the Hill is mostly referred to as a jazz opera, but it was released as a "chronotransduction" with "words by Paul Haines, adaptation and music by Carla Bley, production and coordination by Michael Mantler", performed by the Jazz Composer's Orchestra.-History:Escalator over the Hill...
") with Don Cherry
Don Cherry (jazz)
Donald Eugene Cherry was an innovative African-American jazz cornetist whose career began with a long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman. He went on to live in many parts of the world and work with a wide variety of musicians.-Biography:Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and...
, Charlie Haden
Charlie Haden
Charles Edward Haden is an American jazz musician. He is a double bassist, probably best known for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman...
, Gato Barbieri
Gato Barbieri
Leandro Barbieri , better known as Gato Barbieri , is an Argentinean jazz tenor saxophonist and composer who rose to fame during the free jazz movement in the 1960s and from his latin jazz recordings in the 1970s.-Biography:Born to a family of musicians, Barbieri began playing music...
, Paul Motian
Paul Motian
Stephen Paul Motian was an American jazz drummer, percussionist and composer of Armenian extraction.He first came to prominence in the late 1950s in the piano trio of Bill Evans, and later led several groups...
and many others.
Development of an original conga Style
Having started his musical training as a Post Bop traps player, arriving in New York in 1965, Roger combined authentic Afro Cuban technique which he had learned from his studies with Patato Valdes, Armando PerazaArmando Peraza
Armando Peraza is a Latin jazz percussionist. Through his long associations with jazz pianist George Shearing, vibraphonist Cal Tjader and guitarist Carlos Santana, he has been internationally known from the 1950s through to the 1990s...
, Frankie Malabe, Milton Cardona, Tommy Lopez and others into the jazz idioms of the 1960s and 1970s including the Free Jazz Avant Garde movement started in early 1960s Los Angeles by Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman is an American saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter and composer. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1960s....
.
The now defunct Slug's, located on East 3rd Street, was the Mecca for these New York Avant Garde musicians and Roger's long association with Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp is a prominent African-American jazz saxophonist. Shepp is best known for his passionately Afrocentric music of the late 1960s, which focused on highlighting the injustices faced by the African-Americans, as well as for his work with the New York Contemporary Five, Horace Parlan, and...
's band at Slug's together with drummer Beaver Harris
Beaver Harris
William Godvin "Beaver" Harris was an American jazz drummer, who worked extensively with Archie Shepp.-Biography:...
aggressive high energy percussive forays took the band into exploration of improvised non traditional "rolling" or "rubato" tempos that could surge or recede based upon interaction with the improvisation of the other players. This led Roger to pursue further experimental "free" playing with Sam Rivers
Sam Rivers
Samuel Carthorne Rivers , is an American jazz musician and composer. He performs on soprano and tenor saxophones, bass clarinet, flute, harmonica and piano....
, The Jazz Composers Orchestra and the Ted Danial Energy Big Band which performed weekly at Rashied Ali
Rashied Ali
Rashied Ali, born Robert Patterson was an American free jazz and avant-garde jazz drummer best known for playing with John Coltrane in the last years of Coltrane's life.-Biography:...
's SoHo Jazz Club "Ali's Alley" during the late 70's.
Roger adapted non-traditional tempos such as 7/4 and 9/4 creating patterns incorporating the elements of authentic Afro Cuban conga technique into these non-traditional rhythms. He utilized mixtures of 4/4. 6/8, 12/8, 7/4 and 9/4 in many of his own compositions with his own group with close friend Hilton Ruiz
Hilton Ruiz
Hilton Ruiz was a Puerto Rican American jazz pianist in the Afro-Cuban jazz mold, but was also a talented bebop player....
who was also interested in expanding the "typical" Jazz or Afro-Cuban rhythm structures.
New York radio years
In 1975, while continuing to perform on congas, Roger returned to jazz broadcasting as a jazz deejay and account executive on New York's WRVR where he hosted the highest rated New York jazz radio show on the station on Saturday (Fall '75 Arbitron New York radio ratings). Because of his knowledge of Latin music, he created Roger Dawson's Sunday Salsa Show which began on May 18, 1975 and, according to the Arbitron Radio Ratings Service, became the highest rated Sunday radio show in the New York market with over one quarter of a million listeners every Sunday from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm. The show could be heard from one end of Central Park to the other, Brooklyn's Coney Island and Prospect Park, Orchard Beach in the Bronx, the New Jersey Shore and north to Bridgeport and Stamford, Connecticut.Due to his multiethnic audience, salsa album sales began to soar. While Roger Dawson was on WRVR the New York salsa club scene flourished with clubs located in every borough of New York, nearby New Jersey's Latin metro areas and most of these clubs often competed by featuring multiple live 11 and 12 piece name salsa bands most nights of the week. Many critics feel he was responsible for putting salsa on the map as he was the only deejay on New York commercial FM radio playing this music at that time. (John J O'Connor and Robert Palmer, N.Y. Times)
In addition to playing historical cuts of vintage Cuban (Antonio Arcano, Benny More
Benny Moré
Benny Moré , or Beny, was a Cuban singer. He is often thought of as the greatest Cuban popular singer of all time. He was gifted with an innate musicality and fluid tenor voice which he colored and phrased with great expressivity...
, Orquesta Aragón
Orquesta Aragón
Orquesta Aragón was formed on 30 September 1939, by Orestes Aragón Cantero in Cienfuegos, Cuba. The band originally had the name Ritmica 39, then Ritmica Aragón before settling on its final form. Though they did not create the Cha-cha-cha, they were arguably the best charanga in Cuba during 1950s...
, Sonora Matancera
Sonora Matancera
La Sonora Matancera is a long-time band. Led by guitarist and vocalist Rogelio Martínez, La Sonora Matancera has been called, by the Guinness Book of World Records, "the group with the longest duration."...
, Cachao, Los Papines), and Puerto Rican music and Bomba and Plena rhythms (Ramito, Mon Rivera
Mon Rivera
Mon Rivera is the common name given to two distinct Puerto Rican musicians , namely Monserrate Rivera Alers and his oldest son, Efraín Rivera Castillo Mon Rivera is the common name given to two distinct Puerto Rican musicians (both born in Mayagüez), namely Monserrate Rivera Alers (originally...
, and others) while explaining the evolution of modern salsa, he also broke the new albums of New York's emerging roster of Salsa performers.
- From the Bronx, The Palmieri brothers, Willie ColónWillie ColónWilliam Anthony Colón is a Nuyorican salsa musician. Primarily a trombonist, Colón also sings, writes, produces and acts. He is also involved in municipal politics in New York City.-Early years:...
, Spanish Harlem's Tito PuenteTito PuenteTito Puente, , born Ernesto Antonio Puente, was a Latin jazz and Salsa musician. The son of native Puerto Ricans Ernest and Ercilia Puente, of Spanish Harlem in New York City, Puente is often credited as "El Rey de los Timbales" and "The King of Latin Music"...
, Ray BarrettoRay BarrettoRay Barretto was a Grammy Award-winning Puerto Rican jazz musician.-Early years:Barretto was born in New York City of Puerto Rican descent...
and Joe CubaJoe CubaJoe "Sonny" Cuba was a Puerto Rican musician who was considered to be the "Father of Latin Boogaloo".-Early years:...
, Brooklyn's Lebron Brothers and New York's own Fania All-StarsFania All-StarsThe Fania All-Stars was a musical ensemble established in 1968 by the composer, Johnny Pacheco, as a showcase for the musicians on the record label Fania Records, the leading salsa record company of the time.-Beginnings:...
, Orquesta Broadway, Tipica Novel, Tipica Ideal, Charanga America, Tipica 73, Chino RodriguezChino RodriguezChino Rodriguez is an internationally acclaimed music producer, band leader, musician, manager, booking agent, record company executive, business consultant, and record label owner, specializing in Latin music, most notably Salsa and Latin jazz...
, Cuban transplants Celia CruzCelia CruzCelia Cruz was a Cuban-American salsa singer, and was one of the most successful Salsa performers of the 20th century, having earned twenty-three gold albums...
, MachitoMachitoMachito , born as Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo, was an influential Latin jazz musician who helped refine Afro-Cuban jazz and create both Cubop and salsa music...
, Jose Fajardo, Miguelito Valdes, René TouzetRené TouzetRené Touzet y Monte was a Cuban-born American composer, pianist and bandleader.-Career as bandleader:...
and Mongo SantamaríaMongo SantamaríaRamón "Mongo" Santamaría Rodríguez was an Afro-Cuban Latin jazz percussionist. He is most famous for being the composer of the jazz standard "Afro Blue," recorded by John Coltrane among others. In 1950 he moved to New York where he played with Perez Prado, Tito Puente, Cal Tjader, Fania All...
, Puerto Rican transplants Héctor LavoeHéctor LavoeHéctor Juan Pérez Martínez , better known as Héctor Lavoe, was a Puerto Rican salsa singer. Lavoe was born and raised in the Machuelito sector of Ponce, Puerto Rico. Early in his life, he attended a local music school and developed an interest inspired by Jesús Sánchez Erazo. He moved to New York...
, Ismael RiveraIsmael RiveraIsmael "Maelo" Rivera , was a renowned Puerto Rican composer and singer of salsa music.-Early life:Ismael Rivera was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, on October 5, 1931. He was the first of five children born to Luis and Margarita Rivera. His father, Luis, was a carpenter and his mother a housewife...
, Angel Canales, Adalberto SantiagoAdalberto SantiagoAdalberto Santiago is a world famous salsa singer.He was born in barrio Pozas of Ciales, Puerto Rico. Adalberto's relaxed and flawless lead vocals are amongst the best in salsa, and for over two decades he has sessioned as a coro singer on countless New York recordings. His early influences...
, Ismael QuintanaIsmael QuintanaIsmael Quintana is a singer and composer of salsa music.-Early years:Quintana was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico. His family moved to the Bronx sector of New York when he was only two weeks old; here he went to school and whilst he was still in high school he formed a band with his neighborhood...
, the late Tito RodríguezTito RodriguezTito Rodríguez was a popular 1950s and 1960s Puerto Rican singer and bandleader. He is known by many fans as "El Inolvidable" , a moniker based on his most popular interpretation, a song written by composer Julio Gutierrez.-Early years:Rodríguez , born in Santurce, Puerto Rico,...
, Ismael MirandaIsmael MirandaIsmael Miranda a.k.a. El niño bonito de la Salsa is a composer and a singer of salsa music.-Early years:...
, Rafael CortijoRafael CortijoRafael Cortijo , was a Puerto Rican musician, orchestra leader, and composer.As a child, Cortijo became interested in Caribbean music and enjoyed the works of some of the era's most successful Plena music musicians...
, Kako, Tito Allen, Pete "El Conde" Rodriguez, from the Dominican Republic Johnny PachecoJohnny PachecoJohnny Pacheco is a Dominican producer, musician, bandleader, and one of the most influential figures in American salsa music.-Early life:...
and José AlbertoJosé AlbertoJosé Alberto is a Dominican salsa singer. José Alberto moved to Puerto Rico with his family at the age of 7, and inspired by Latin music went on to polish his singing at Las Antillas Military Academy...
and Panama transplant Rubén BladesRubén BladesRubén Blades Bellido de Luna is a Panamanian salsa singer, songwriter, lawyer, actor, Latin jazz musician, and politician, performing musically most often in the Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz genres...
joined by several non-Hispanic New York salsa stars Larry HarlowLarry HarlowLarry Harlow is an American salsa music performer, composer and producer.Larry Harlow was born into a very-musical American family of Jewish descent.-Summary:...
, Barry RogersBarry RogersBarry Rogers was a salsa musician and jazz fusion trombonist.Born Barron W. Rogers in The Bronx, he descended from Polish Jews who came to New York City via London and was raised in Spanish Harlem...
, Skip Farnsworth, Ronnie Cuber and Louie Kahn.
- From outside New York Puerto Rico's El Gran ComboEl Gran ComboEl Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, commonly known as El Gran Combo, is a Puerto Rican Salsa music orchestra. It is Puerto Rico's most successful musical group, and one of the most popular salsa orchestras across Latin America...
, The Puerto Rican All Stars, Cheo FelicianoCheo FelicianoJosé Feliciano, better known as Cheo Feliciano , is a composer and singer of salsa and bolero music.-Early years:...
, Pellin RodríguezPellin RodríguezPellín Rodríguez , was a Salsa singer. Rodríguez was a member of the musical group El Gran Combo and toured with them all over Europe and Latin America, gaining fame and popularity as a singer. In addition to his singing capabilities, Rodríguez had great comedic abilities and participated on...
, Lalo RodríguezLalo RodriguezLalo Rodríguez , born in 1958 in Carolina, Puerto Rico is a salsa singer and musician is best known for his hit "Ven Devórame Otra Vez"....
, Andy MontañezAndy MontañezAndrés Montañez , better known as Andy Montañez, is a salsa singer from Puerto Rico.-Early life:Montañez, like singer Daniel Santos and boxer Ossie Ocasio, is a native of the Tras Talleres area of Santurce San Juan. He is known by the nickname "El Godfather de la Salsa"...
, Marvin SantiagoMarvin SantiagoMarvin Santiago was a Puerto Rican salsa singer who became famous all across Latin America during the 1970s. He was also a part-time comedian on Puerto Rican television. His brother, Billiván Santiago, had some success in Puerto Rico as a plena singer.- Early life :Santiago was born in San Juan...
, Frankie RuizFrankie RuizFrankie Ruiz was a famous Puerto Rican salsa singer.-Early years:Born Jose Antonio Torresola Ruiz, he was born and raised in Paterson, New Jersey. His parents moved from Puerto Rico to the United States in search of a better way of life. In Paterson, Ruiz received his primary and secondary...
, Willie RosarioWillie RosarioWillie Rosario a.k.a. "Mr. Afinque" is a musician, composer and bandleader of salsa music.-Early years:Rosario was born and raised in Coamo, Puerto Rico into a poor, but hard working family. His parents realized that as a child Willie was musically inclined and had him take guitar lessons at the...
, Bobby ValentínBobby ValentinBobby Valentin, also known as "El Rey del Bajo" , is a musician and salsa bandleader.-Early years:...
, Papo LuccaPapo LuccaEnrique Arsenio Lucca Quiñonez, better known as Papo Lucca, born on April 10, 1946, Ponce, Puerto Rico.Papo Lucca is a famous Puerto Rican multi-instrumentalist , but is best known as a pianist. Main musical genre focus are Salsa and Latin Jazz...
, Roberto RoenaRoberto RoenaRoberto Roena is a salsa music percussionist, orchestra leader, and dancer. Roena was one of the original members of El Gran Combo Puerto Rican's first successful salsa music orchestra. He later became the leader of his own band, "Roberto Roena y Su Apollo Sound", arguably one of the best Latin...
, Tito RojasTito RojasJulio César Rojas better known"El Gallo Salsero" Tito Rojas is a salsa singer and bandleader.-Early years:...
, Luigi Texidor, Venezuela's Oscar D'LeónOscar D'LeónOscar Emilio León Somoza, better known as Oscar D'León is a Venezuelan musician who became internationally famous for his salsa music. In Spanish, he is known as El Sonero del Mundo . His most famous song is perhaps "Llorarás," which he recorded in 1975 with his group La Dimensión Latina...
, Columbia's Fruko y sus Tesos, Grupo Niche, and Grupo Gale.
Roger created a blend of Latin jazz cuts by artists such as Cal Tjader
Cal Tjader
Callen Radcliffe Tjader, Jr. a.k.a. Cal Tjader was a Latin jazz musician, though he also explored various other jazz idioms. Unlike other American jazz musicians who experimented with the music from Cuba, the Caribbean, and Latin America, he never abandoned it, performing it until his...
, Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
, Chico O’Farrill, Mongo Santamaría
Mongo Santamaría
Ramón "Mongo" Santamaría Rodríguez was an Afro-Cuban Latin jazz percussionist. He is most famous for being the composer of the jazz standard "Afro Blue," recorded by John Coltrane among others. In 1950 he moved to New York where he played with Perez Prado, Tito Puente, Cal Tjader, Fania All...
, Mark Weinstein (who contributed one of his originals as one of Roger's themes), Dave Valentin
Dave Valentin
Dave Valentin is a jazz flutist.He learned latin percussion first when he was a teenager, and then switched to flute. Valentin's teacher, Hubert Laws, suggested that he not double on saxophone because of his attractive sound on the flute. He studied at the Bronx Community College...
, Clare Fischer
Clare Fischer
Clare Fischer is an American composer, arranger, pianist and organist. His parents were of German, French, Irish-Scot, and English backgrounds.-Early years:...
, Poncho Sanchez
Poncho Sanchez
Poncho Sanchez , a Mexican-American, is a conguero , Latin jazz band leader, and salsa singer. In 2000, Sanchez and his ensemble won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album for their work on the Concord Picante album Latin Soul...
, Grover Washington and others mixed with the more "tipico" singer dominated Salsa bands. Often called "Rogelio" (Roger in Spanish), Chino y su Conjunto Melao wrote one of his theme songs: "Rogelio Tiene La Salsa" which became a salsa standard at the time. Roger also pressured the record companies to produce quality product. For example, to save a few bucks some record companies had produced albums where the piano was out of tune which Roger refused to give air play. He was also instrumental in exposing new and innovative salsa performers and projects such as "Grupo Folklorico Y Experimental Nuevayorquino", Manny Oquendo's Conjunto Libre, the sophisticated work of pianist arranger Jorge Millet, and the original bi-lingual approach of Angel Canales who could not get airplay on other commercial stations until his exposure on Roger's show broke his albums.
The readers of Latin New York Magazine, New York's monthly magazine for salsa enthusiasts, voted Roger Dawson "The best Radio Show and Deejay" for four years in a row from 1976 to 1979. (Latin New York Music Awards) He was awarded a "Citation" by Manhattan Borough President Andrew Stein for his work "in support of numerous vital community projects" such as Johnny Colon
Johnny Colon
Johnny Colon is an American salsa musician, leader of the Johnny Colon Orchestra and founder of the East Harlem Music School, also known as a major contributor to the boogaloo sound of the 1960s....
's East Harlem Music School which took Hispanic kids off the streets of Spanish Harlem and taught them how to play Salsa.
In the early sixties the legendary Symphony Sid
Symphony Sid
Sid Torin was a long-time jazz disk jockey in the United States. Many critics have credited him with introducing jazz to the mass audience.-Early life:...
Torin had a Latin show on late night AM radio and hosted Latin Music Monday night concerts at the Village Gate. Because of his jazz background, Roger came up with an updated concept of having a jazz soloist sit in with a salsa band and created the name "Salsa Meets Jazz". He then took this concept to the Village Gate as host for his weekly Monday night concerts in which he often participated on congas. Roger's "Salsa Meets Jazz" concert series featured such legendary jazz figures as Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and an Academy Award-nominated actor . He is regarded as one of the first and most important musicians to adapt the bebop musical language of people like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell to the tenor saxophone...
, Sonny Stitt
Sonny Stitt
Edward "Sonny" Stitt was an American jazz saxophonist of the bebop/hard bop idiom. He was also one of the best-documented saxophonists of his generation, recording over 100 albums in his lifetime...
, Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
, James Moody
James Moody (saxophonist)
James Moody was an American jazz saxophone and flute player. He was best known for his hit "Moody's Mood for Love," an improvisation based on "I'm in the Mood for Love"; in performance, he often improvised vocals for the tune.-Biography:James Moody was born in Savannah, Georgia...
, Frank Wess
Frank Wess
Frank Wess is an American jazz musician, who has played saxophone and flute.-Biography:...
, Pharaoh Sanders, Slide Hampton
Slide Hampton
Locksley Wellington "Slide" Hampton is an American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger.He was a 1998 Grammy Award winner for "Best Jazz Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist", as arranger for "Cotton Tail" performed by Dee Dee Bridgewater...
, Roger's high school pal Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson is a jazz vibraphone and marimba player. His vibraphone playing is suggestive of the style of Milt Jackson in its free-flowing melodicism, but his sense of harmony and group interaction is thoroughly modern...
and at that time, the young Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...
. The weekly concert series at the "Gate" ran from the late seventies well into the eighties. Although originated by Roger Dawson, the name "Salsa Meets Jazz" can still be seen as promoters "borrow" his term to promote concerts or albums.
Roger was often the host at Salsa Festivals and Fania All-Stars
Fania All-Stars
The Fania All-Stars was a musical ensemble established in 1968 by the composer, Johnny Pacheco, as a showcase for the musicians on the record label Fania Records, the leading salsa record company of the time.-Beginnings:...
concerts at Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
and in one of the concerts he was featured as a guest soloist on congas with Johnny "Dandy" Rodriguez Jr and his Tipica 73
Tipica 73
Tipica 73 was a popular New York salsa band in the 1970s and early 1980s, formed with a number of musicians from Ray Barretto's band.Tipica 73's music was notable for its experimental style, and was the first US-based salsa orchestra to record in Cuba with the album Tipicá 73 En Cuba Intercambio...
all star conga section featuring Johnny, Cachete Maldonado and Jose Grajales. He also hosted several Latin Jazz concerts at the Beacon Theater with Cal Tjader
Cal Tjader
Callen Radcliffe Tjader, Jr. a.k.a. Cal Tjader was a Latin jazz musician, though he also explored various other jazz idioms. Unlike other American jazz musicians who experimented with the music from Cuba, the Caribbean, and Latin America, he never abandoned it, performing it until his...
that featured Cal reunited with Willie Bobo
Willie Bobo
Willie Bobo was the stage name of William Correa , an American jazz percussionist.-Biography:William Correa grew up in Spanish Harlem, New York City. He made his name in Latin Jazz, specifically Afro-Cuban jazz, in the 1960s and '70s, with the timbales becoming his favoured instrument...
and Mongo Santamaría
Mongo Santamaría
Ramón "Mongo" Santamaría Rodríguez was an Afro-Cuban Latin jazz percussionist. He is most famous for being the composer of the jazz standard "Afro Blue," recorded by John Coltrane among others. In 1950 he moved to New York where he played with Perez Prado, Tito Puente, Cal Tjader, Fania All...
.
In 1979, Roger was aboard a private chartered jet to Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
to participate in the historic "Havana Jam" cultural exchange concerts held at the Karl Marx Theater in Havana. He accompanied the CBS Jazz All Stars, Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and an Academy Award-nominated actor . He is regarded as one of the first and most important musicians to adapt the bebop musical language of people like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell to the tenor saxophone...
, Stan Getz
Stan Getz
Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...
, Woody Shaw
Woody Shaw
Woody Shaw was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer and band leader, often referred to as the "last innovator" in the jazz trumpet lineage...
, Tony Williams, Willie Bobo
Willie Bobo
Willie Bobo was the stage name of William Correa , an American jazz percussionist.-Biography:William Correa grew up in Spanish Harlem, New York City. He made his name in Latin Jazz, specifically Afro-Cuban jazz, in the 1960s and '70s, with the timbales becoming his favoured instrument...
, Percy Heath
Percy Heath
Percy Heath was an American jazz bassist, brother to tenor saxophonist Jimmy Heath and drummer Albert Heath, with whom he formed the Heath Brothers in 1975...
, Hubert Laws
Hubert Laws
Hubert Laws is an American flutist and saxophonist with a 40+ year career in jazz, classical, and other music genres. Alongside Herbie Mann, Laws is probably the most recognized and respected jazz flutist...
, Cedar Walton
Cedar Walton
Cedar Anthony Walton, Junior is an American hard bop jazz pianist.-Biography:Walton grew up in Dallas, Texas. His mother was an aspiring concert pianist, and was Walton's initial teacher. She also took him to jazz performances around Dallas...
, Jimmy Heath
Jimmy Heath
James Edward Heath , nicknamed Little Bird, is an American jazz saxophonist, composer and arranger. He is the brother of bassist Percy Heath and drummer Albert Heath.-Biography:...
, Arthur Blythe
Arthur Blythe
Arthur Blythe is an American jazz alto saxophonist and composer. His stylistic voice has a distinct vibrato and he plays within the post-bop subgenre of jazz.- Biography :...
, Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson is a jazz vibraphone and marimba player. His vibraphone playing is suggestive of the style of Milt Jackson in its free-flowing melodicism, but his sense of harmony and group interaction is thoroughly modern...
, John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin (musician)
John McLaughlin , also known as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is an English guitarist, bandleader and composer...
, Eric Gale
Eric Gale
Eric J. Gale was a leading American jazz and session guitarist.Born in Brooklyn, New York, Gale began playing guitar at the age of 12. Although he majored in chemistry at Niagara University, Gale was determined to pursue a musical career, and began contributing to accompaniments for such stars as...
, Weather Report
Weather Report
Weather Report was an American jazz-rock band of the 1970s and early 1980s. The band was co-led by the Austrian-born keyboard player Joe Zawinul and the American saxophonist Wayne Shorter...
with Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.He is generally acknowledged to be jazz's greatest living composer, and many of his compositions have become standards...
, Joe Zawinul
Joe Zawinul
Josef Erich Zawinul was an Austrian-American jazz keyboardist and composer.First coming to prominence with saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, Zawinul went on to play with trumpeter Miles Davis, and to become one of the creators of jazz fusion, an innovative musical genre that combined jazz with...
, Jaco Pastorius
Jaco Pastorius
John Francis Anthony Pastorius III , known as Jaco Pastorius, was an American jazz musician and composer widely acknowledged as a virtuoso electric bass player....
and Peter Erskine
Peter Erskine
Peter Erskine is an American jazz drummer and composer. He has enjoyed a long and successful career as a session drummer, recording and touring with many famous jazz and rock artists, including Steely Dan and Weather Report...
, The Fania All-Stars
Fania All-Stars
The Fania All-Stars was a musical ensemble established in 1968 by the composer, Johnny Pacheco, as a showcase for the musicians on the record label Fania Records, the leading salsa record company of the time.-Beginnings:...
, with Johnny Pacheco
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Johnny Pacheco is a Dominican producer, musician, bandleader, and one of the most influential figures in American salsa music.-Early life:...
, Héctor Lavoe
Héctor Lavoe
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, Rubén Blades
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Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna is a Panamanian salsa singer, songwriter, lawyer, actor, Latin jazz musician, and politician, performing musically most often in the Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz genres...
, Pete "El Conde" Rodriguez, Roberto Roena
Roberto Roena
Roberto Roena is a salsa music percussionist, orchestra leader, and dancer. Roena was one of the original members of El Gran Combo Puerto Rican's first successful salsa music orchestra. He later became the leader of his own band, "Roberto Roena y Su Apollo Sound", arguably one of the best Latin...
and Papo Lucca
Papo Lucca
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, along with Billy Joel
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, Kris Kristofferson
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, Rita Coolidge
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and Stephen Stills
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.
Roger and fellow conguero Eddie Montalvo, who was with the Fania All-Stars, were invited to join in during an epic conga jam hosted by the Cuban band Irakere
Irakere
Irakere is a Cuban band founded by Armando de Sequeira Romeu Music Director and composer, and by pianist Chucho Valdés in 1973...
led by Chucho Valdés
Chucho Valdés
Chucho Valdés is a Cuban pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger. In 1972 he founded the group Irakere, one of Cuba's best-known Latin jazz bands. Together with pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Valdés is revered as one of Cuba's greatest jazz pianists...
which at that time featured Paquito D'Rivera
Paquito D'Rivera
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and Arturo Sandoval
Arturo Sandoval
Arturo Sandoval is a jazz trumpeter and pianist. He was born in Artemisa, in the newest renamed Artemisa Province, Cuba....
before they were eventually able to defect from Cuba and move to the United States. (D'Rivera in 1981 and Sandoval in 1990) Roger was also able to play with the Abreu brothers (Los Papines) during the trip.
The trip had to be arranged in secret under very tight security as the right wing Cuban community in the U.S. had threatened those that would participate in cultural exchanges with the Castro government at that time. The U.S. State Department had also warned that those who traveled to Cuba did so at their own risk as there were no formal relations between the U.S. and Cuba. After arrival in Havana, Cuban authorities maintained tight surveillance and control of the Americans. Care had to be exercised in conversations with many Cuban musicians who confided that they wanted to defect to the U.S.
In September 1980 without any notice Viacom changed the format of WRVR from jazz to country music with the famous segue of September eighth at 10:00 am of Charlie Mingus to Dolly Parton and that was the end of Roger Dawson's successful Jazz and Salsa shows on WRVR-FM which had often been sold out of 15 commercial spots per hour at the highest rates on the station. Hoping to acquire some of that revenue Roger was hired by all Spanish language AM radio station WJIT as the only "bi-lingual" program at that station with Roger continuing to play his salsa hits. However the low quality of AM non-stereo radio music never generated the ratings of his FM show and his show was discontinued by WJIT in 1982.
Bandleader
Roger continued to play and compose and appeared at George Wien's 1983 New York's Kool Jazz Festival with his own Jazz Septet playing his compositions featuring Hilton RuizHilton Ruiz
Hilton Ruiz was a Puerto Rican American jazz pianist in the Afro-Cuban jazz mold, but was also a talented bebop player....
, piano, Claudio Roditi
Claudio Roditi
Claudio Roditi is a Brazilian jazz trumpeter.After arriving in the United States in 1970, he began to study at Berklee School of Music, where he became musically influenced by Clifford Brown and Lee Morgan...
, brass, John Purcell
John Purcell
John Purcell VC was an Irish soldier in the British Army who received the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces....
, reeds, Anthony Cox, bass, John Betsch
John Betsch
John Betsch is an American jazz drummer.Betsch began on percussion at age nine, and attended Fisk University, Berklee College of Music and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. After playing in organ trios, he released an album as a leader, Earth Blossom, in 1975...
, drums and Milton Cardona on percussion. (Reviewed by Jon Pareles, N.Y. Times and Tony Sabournin, Latin N.Y.)This group was featured on his album Roger Dawson Septet "New York Time" recorded by the legendary Rudy Van Gelder
Rudy Van Gelder
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at his Englewood New Jersey studio.
Retirement
Given his executive broadcasting background, in the mid-eighties Roger Dawson returned to the business side of broadcasting as an account executive in national radio sales with Katz Radio (now Katz Communications) for ten years. He then moved to CBS Radio Representatives as the New York office Team Manager where he was hired away by Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation to be the Director of Marketing for its two New York radio properties. Following an eighteen year marriage, he was divorced in 1997. He has a daughter, Blair and a son, Trevor. Roger retired in 2004 and moved to La Jolla, California where he resided with his son Trevor who attends nearby UCSD.In 2010, Roger moved to Metairie, Louisiana, Adjacent to New Orleans. He still composes, plays the piano and plans to become involved with jazz education and the development of jazz Public Broadcasting in New Orleans.