Tadd Dameron
Encyclopedia
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, while reviewer Scott Yanow
writes that Dameron was the "definitive arranger/composer of the bop era".
, 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
.
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
.
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
), 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.
In the 1980s, Philly Joe Jones
, drummer for the Miles Davis Quintet
, and trumpeter Don Sickler
founded Dameronia
, a tribute band
to Dameron.
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.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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...
, arranger
Arranger
In investment banking, an arranger is a provider of funds in the syndication of a debt. They are entitled to syndicate the loan or bond issue, and may be referred to as the "lead underwriter". This is because this entity bears the risk of being able to sell the underlying securities/debt or the...
and pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
. Saxophonist 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...
called Dameron the "romanticist" of the bop movement, while reviewer Scott Yanow
Scott Yanow
Scott Yanow is an American jazz commentator, known for many contributions to the Allmusic website, for writing ten books on jazz and for reviewing jazz recordings for over 30 years.-Biography:...
writes that Dameron was the "definitive arranger/composer of the bop era".
Biography
Born in ClevelandCleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, Dameron was the most influential arranger of the bebop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
era, but also wrote charts for swing
Swing (genre)
Swing music, also known as swing jazz or simply swing, is a form of jazz music that developed in the early 1930s and became a distinctive style by 1935 in the United States...
and hard bop
Hard bop
Hard bop is a style of jazz that is an extension of bebop music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz which incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music, and blues, especially in the saxophone and piano...
players. The bands
Band (music)
In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...
he arranged for included those of Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
, Artie Shaw
Artie Shaw
Arthur Jacob Arshawsky , better known as Artie Shaw, was an American jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. He was also the author of both fiction and non-fiction writings....
, Jimmie Lunceford
Jimmie Lunceford
James Melvin "Jimmie" Lunceford was an American jazz alto saxophonist and bandleader in the swing era.-Biography:...
, 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...
, Billy Eckstine
Billy Eckstine
William Clarence Eckstine was an American singer of ballads and a bandleader of the swing era. Eckstine's smooth baritone and distinctive vibrato broke down barriers throughout the 1940s, first as leader of the original bop big-band, then as the first romantic black male in popular...
, and Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."...
. He and lyricist Carl Sigman
Carl Sigman
Carl Sigman was an American songwriter.-Biography:Born in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York, Sigman graduated from law school and passed his Bar exams to practice in the state of New York...
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
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
and Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
.
In the late 1940s, Dameron wrote arrangements for the big band of 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...
, who gave the première of his large-scale orchestral piece Soulphony at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
in 1948. Also in 1948, Dameron led his own group in New York, which included Fats Navarro
Fats Navarro
Theodore "Fats" Navarro was an American jazz trumpet player. He was a pioneer of the bebop style of jazz improvisation in the 1940s. He had a strong stylistic influence on many other players, most notably Clifford Brown.-Life:Navarro was born in Key West, Florida, to Cuban-Black-Chinese parentage...
; the following year he was at the Paris Jazz Fair with 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,...
. From 1961 he scored for recordings by Milt Jackson
Milt Jackson
Milton "Bags" Jackson was an American jazz vibraphonist, usually thought of as a bebop player, although he performed in several jazz idioms...
, 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...
, and Blue Mitchell
Blue Mitchell
Richard Allen Mitchell was an American jazz, rhythm and blues, soul, rock, and funk trumpeter, known for many albums recorded as leader and sideman for Riverside, Blue Note and then Mainstream Records.-Biography:...
.
He also arranged and played for rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
musician Bull Moose Jackson
Bull Moose Jackson
Benjamin Clarence "Bull Moose" Jackson was an American blues and rhythm and blues singer and saxophonist, who was most successful in the late 1940s.-Career:...
. Also playing for Jackson at the time was Benny Golson
Benny Golson
Benny Golson is an American bebop/hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger.-Biography:While in high school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Golson played with several other promising young musicians, including John Coltrane, Red Garland, Jimmy Heath, Percy Heath, Philly Joe Jones, and...
, 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
Jazz standard
Jazz standards are musical compositions which are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive list of jazz standards, and the list of songs deemed to be...
, including "Hot House", "Our Delight", "Good Bait" (composed for Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
), and "Lady Bird". His bands featured leading players such as Fats Navarro, Miles Davis, 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 Rollins
Sonny Rollins
Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St...
, and Wardell Gray
Wardell Gray
Wardell Gray was an American jazz tenor saxophonist who straddled the swing and bebop periods.Today often overlooked, Gray's playing displays a unique style, an unmatched tone and a strong presence.-Early years:...
.
After forming another group of his own with Clifford Brown
Clifford Brown
Clifford Brown , aka "Brownie," was an influential and highly rated American jazz trumpeter. He died aged 25, leaving behind only four years' worth of recordings...
in 1953, Dameron developed an addiction
Substance use disorder
Substance use disorders include substance abuse and substance dependence. In DSM-IV, the conditions are formally diagnosed as one or the other, but it has been proposed that DSM-5 combine the two into a single condition called "Substance-use disorder"....
to narcotics toward the end of his career. He served time (1959–1961) in federal prison in Lexington, KY. Dameron suffered from cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
and had several heart
Heart
The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...
attacks
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
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
Philly Joe Jones
Joseph Rudolph Jones was a Philadelphia-born United States jazz drummer, known as the drummer for the Miles Davis Quintet.Philly Joe Jones was often confused with another influential jazz drummer, Jo Jones...
, drummer for the Miles Davis Quintet
Miles Davis Quintet
The Miles Davis Quintet was an American jazz band from 1955 to early 1969 led by Miles Davis. The quintet underwent frequent personnel changes toward its metamorphosis into a different ensemble in 1969...
, and trumpeter Don Sickler
Don Sickler
Don Sickler is an American jazz trumpeter, arranger and producer.In the 1980s, he set up a tribute band, Dameronia, with Philly Joe Jones, to play the music of Tadd Dameron....
founded Dameronia
Dameronia
Dameronia was the name of a bebop jazz ensemble founded by Don Sickler and Philly Joe Jones in the 1980s in tribute to Tadd Dameron. They recorded two albums, one for Uptown Records and the other for Soul Note Records, and continued to perform even after Jones' death in 1985....
, a tribute band
Tribute band
A tribute act is a music group, singer, or musician who specifically plays the music of a well-known music act - sometimes one which has disbanded, ceased touring or is deceased. Probably the largest class of tributes acts are Elvis impersonators, individual performers who mimic the songs and style...
to Dameron.
Continuum : Mad About Tadd: The Music of Tadd Dameron is an album released in 1982 by a group consisting of 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...
, 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:...
, Ron Carter
Ron Carter
Ron Carter is an American jazz double-bassist. His appearances on over 2,500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history, along with Milt Hinton, Ray Brown and Leroy Vinnegar. Carter is also an acclaimed cellist who has recorded numerous times on that...
, 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...
, 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:...
. The LP has since been reissued on CD.
In 1975, jazz pianist Barry Harris
Barry Harris
Barry Doyle Harris is an American bebop jazz pianist and educator.-Biography:Harris left Detroit for New York City in 1960...
recorded Barry Harris Plays Tadd Dameron for Xanadu Records
Xanadu Records
Xanadu Records was a jazz music record label specializing in bebop throughout the 1970s and 1980s founded by Don Schlitten, recording and issuing recordings by some legendary names in jazz music.-Discography:...
.
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 WindingKai WindingKai Chresten Winding was a popular Danish-born American trombonist and jazz composer. He is well known for a successful collaboration with fellow trombonist J. J. Johnson.-Biography:...
, Sahib ShihabSahib ShihabSahib Shihab was an American jazz saxophonist and flautist.-Biography:...
, Kenny ClarkeKenny ClarkeKenny Clarke , born Kenneth Spearman Clarke, nicknamed "Klook" and later known as Liaqat Ali Salaam, was a jazz drummer and an early innovator of the bebop style of drumming... - 1949: The Miles Davis and Dameron Quartet in Paris - Festival International du Jazz, May 1949 (ColumbiaColumbia RecordsColumbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
; issued on LP, 1977) - 1953: A Study in Dameronia (Prestige)
- 1956: FontainebleauFontainebleau (album)Fontainebleau is a 1956 album by jazz musician Tadd Dameron.-Track listing:# "Fontainebleau" – 4:48# "Delirium" – 5:00# "The Scene Is Clean" – 5:00# "Flossie Lou" – 4:50# "Bula-Beige" – 11:20All tracks composed by Tadd Dameron-Personnel:...
(Prestige) - 1956: Mating CallMating CallMating Call is an album by jazz musician Tadd Dameron issued in 1957 on Prestige Records, catalogue 7070. It was recorded at the studio of Rudy Van Gelder in Hackensack, New Jersey...
with John ColtraneJohn ColtraneJohn 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...
(Prestige) - 1962: The Magic TouchThe Magic TouchThe Magic Touch can refer to an R&B female vocal group from Long Island, which featured Pat Carty as lead vocalist [Diane Tyler would later take over as lead], Marsha Bivens and LaRonda Williams, that recorded the hit single Step Into My World on the Black Falcon label in April 1971, or a 1962...
(Riverside) - 1995: The Complete Blue Note and Capitol Recordings of Fats Navarro and Tadd Dameron (Blue Note; reissue of above 1949 recording date)