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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZDAMERON, Tadd(b 21 Feb. '17, Cleveland OH; d 8 March '65 NYC) Pianist, composer, arranger. One of the most talented and important musicians in early-modern jazz, among the first to write bop for larger groups, finding beauty in modern harmonies uncommercial at the time. Comps. incl. 'Hot House', 'Good Bait', 'Lady Bird', 'Our Delight', many classics; ballad 'If You Could See Me Now' out of a phrase from a Dizzy Gillespie solo. His family wanted him to be a doctor, but he had been teaching himself music since childhood; he failed high school classes in theory and harmony because he was bored: 'Everything they were teaching me, I knew already.' Dexter Gordon later described him as 'the romanticist of the whole period'. Gordon also pointed out, after playing some Dameron scores, that each line in the arrangement had melodic significance, not just the top one. He began writing for Harlan Leonard in KC; Don Redman, Illinois Jacquet '40s, Dizzy's big band; own quintet NYC '49 (collected under Fats Navarro's name on Blue Note; more Navarro with Dameron later on Milestone). He also recorded for Capitol, and in Paris with Miles Davis '49. A Clifford Brown Memorial later on Fantasy is a '53 Dameron group. Dameron's famous album is the lovely octet set Fontainebleau (with a sound like that of a whole orchestra); the quartet set Mating Call with John Coltrane was also made '56, both on Prestige; he spent April '58 to June '61 at the Lexington Federal Narcotics Hospital. A big band set The Magic Touch '62 on Riverside lacked tang perhaps compared to earlier work, but incl. Bill Evans; nothing Dameron did was without wit and beauty (all these now on OJC CDs). Piano solos were recorded by Chris Albertson '61. He wrote record sessions for Milt Jackson, Sonny Stitt, Blue Mitchell; wrote for Benny Goodman's tour of USSR '62; suffered heart attacks, died of cancer. His comps were played by a Barry Harris Trio on Xanadu '75; also by group Dameronia, led by Philly Joe Jones, comps. of Dameron and others transcribed or arr. by Don Sickler and John Oddo: Dameronia '82 incl. Johnny Coles; Look, Stop And Listen '83 featured Johnny Griffin on 'If You Could See Me Now', Walter Davis Jr on 'Dial B for Beauty'; also incl. Benny Golson's 'Killer Joe'. Dameronia's Live At The Theatre Boulogne/Billancourt/Paris '89 is on Soul Note. Also quintet Continuum, with Jimmy Heath, Slide Hampton, Kenny Barron, Ron Carter, Art Taylor: Mad About Tadd '83 on Palo Alto, then on Quicksilver. The Dave Cliff/Geoff Simkins 5 Play The Music Of Tadd Dameron '96 is a septet on Spotlite UK. |