Tadd Dameron
*Tadd Dameron was born on this date in 1917 in Cleveland, Ohio. He was a Black jazz pianist, arranger, composer, and bandleader, especially noted during the bop era for the melodic beauty and warmth of the songs he composed.
Dameron was initially known as an arranger and composer for big bands, particularly for Harlan Leonard and His Rockets in the early 1940s. Dizzy Gillespie introduced some of his finest songs, including "Good Bait" and "Our Delight"; Gillespie also premiered his extended orchestral work Soulphony at Carnegie Hall in 1948. The small groups Dameron led on the East Coast and in Europe from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s were the height of his achievement; they included outstanding musicians such as trumpeters Fats Navarro, who was his most sympathetic interpreter, and Clifford Brown.
Though he wrote an occasional pensive ballad, such as "If You Could See Me Now" (for Sarah Vaughan), Dameron's songs, in general, featured optimistic melodies ("Hot House," "Lady Bird," "Casbah") and provocative harmonies, typically based on standard chord sequences. A pianist with a light style and percussive attack, he rarely chose to solo. One of his most acclaimed works, the extended composition Fontainebleau, includes no improvisation.
Beginning in 1961, he composed scores for recordings by soloists with large ensembles. Tadd Dameron died on March 8, 1965, in New York City.
A Century of Jazz by Roy Carr
Da Capo Press, New York
Copyright 1997
ISBN 0-306-80778-5
