Instruments Piano Record label Blue Note Records Genres Jazz | Role Composer Name Tadd Dameron | |
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Birth name Tadley Ewing Peake Dameron Born February 21, 1917
Cleveland, Ohio, US ( 1917-02-21 ) Occupation(s) Composer
Arranger
Musician Died March 8, 1965, New York City, New York, United States Albums Mating Call, Fontainebleau, Fontainbleau Similar People Fats Navarro, Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Clarke, Bud Powell, Philly Joe Jones | ||
If you could see me now tadd dameron composer the steve elmer trio live at smalls jazz club
Tadley Ewing Peake Dameron (February 21, 1917 – March 8, 1965) was an American jazz composer, arranger, and pianist. Saxophonist Dexter Gordon called him the "romanticist" of the bop movement, while reviewer Scott Yanow wrote that Dameron was the "definitive arranger/composer of the bop era".
Contents
- If you could see me now tadd dameron composer the steve elmer trio live at smalls jazz club
- Tadd dameron orchestra just plain talkin
- Biography
- Legacy
- As leader or co leader
- As arranger or conductor
- References
Tadd dameron orchestra just plain talkin
Biography
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Dameron was the most influential arranger of the bebop era, but also wrote charts for swing and hard bop players. The bands he arranged for included those of Count Basie, Artie Shaw, Jimmie Lunceford, Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Eckstine, and Sarah Vaughan. He and lyricist Carl Sigman wrote "If You Could See Me Now" for Sarah Vaughan and it became one of her first signature songs. According to the composer, his greatest influences were George Gershwin and Duke Ellington.
In the late 1940s, Dameron wrote arrangements for Gillespie's big band, who gave the première of his large-scale orchestral piece Soulphony in Three Hearts at Carnegie Hall in 1948. Also in 1948, Dameron led his own group in New York, which included Fats Navarro; the following year Dameron was at the Paris Jazz Festival with Miles Davis. From 1961 he scored for recordings by Milt Jackson, Sonny Stitt, and Blue Mitchell.
Dameron also arranged and played for rhythm and blues musician Bull Moose Jackson. Playing for Jackson at that same time was Benny Golson, who was to become a jazz composer in his own right. Golson has said that Dameron was the most important influence on his writing.
Dameron composed several bop standards, including "Hot House", "If You Could See Me Now", "Our Delight", "Good Bait" (composed for Count Basie) and "Lady Bird". Dameron's 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 (1959–60) in federal prison in Lexington, Kentucky. Dameron suffered from cancer and had several heart attacks before dying of cancer in 1965, at the age of 48.
Legacy
Dameron has been the subject of many tributes since his death:
As leader or co-leader
As arranger or conductor
For Blue Mitchell
For Milt Jackson
For Sonny Stitt