Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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NEWMAN, David 'Fathead'

(b 24 February 1933, Dallas TX; d 20 January 2009, KIngston NY) Saxophones, flute. He was called 'Fathead' by a music teacher when he got caught playing a Sousa march from memory while the music on the stand was upside down, and the nickname stuck. He began with local groups, playing with and inspired by the legendary Texas musician Buster Smith. He first met Ray Charles in 1951 while touring in R&B with Lowell Fulson, then was a star in Charles's band 1954-64, heard on hits like 'I Got A Woman'. He worked with King Curtis c.1966, rejoined Charles 70-1 and worked with Herbie Mann '72-4, all the while bringing R&B feeling to his own jazz albums.

He made three for Atlantic '58-61 (the first one called Fathead: Ray Charles Presents David Newman, but Charles always called him 'Brains'), then House Of David '67, all with small groups; two more '68 with larger forces, voices, arrangements etc; Captain Buckles '70 was a quintet set with Blue Mitchell on Cotillion/ Atlantic; Lonely Avenue '71 a septet with Roy Ayers. Mac Rebennack played on an Atlantic LP '72 with added strings and brass on some tracks; Ayers and Ron Carter played in sextet Newmanism '74. Mr Fathead '76 on WB had a different large group on every track; Keep The Dream Alive '77 was a smaller group, Concrete Jungle had strings and horns dubbed, both on Prestige '77; Back To Basics '77 was on Milestone; Resurgence '80 (sextet with Cedar Walton) and Still Hard Times '82 (with Hank Crawford) were on Muse; Heads Up '87 was a quintet on Atlantic. He played on Jimmy McGriff's The Starting Five and Crawford's Mr Chips '86 on Milestone.

Further albums: Return To The Wide Open Spaces on Amazing with Ellis Marsalis and Cornell Dupree, Fire! Live At The Village Vanguard on Atlantic with Crawford and Stanley Turrentine, sextet Blue Head '89 on Candid, Blue Greens And Beans '90 on Timeless with Rein De Graaff Trio, and sextet Mr Gentle, Mr Cool '94 on Kokopelli with Carter. His last album was Diamondhead 2008. There were anthologies from the Atlantic period on Rhino.

Coincidentally, his old bandmates from the Ray Charles band, reedmen Hank Crawford and Leroy Cooper, passed away on 29 January and 15 January respectively. See Crawford's entry; Cooper had been leading a band at Disneyworld in Orlando for 20 years. Jazz and R&B guitarist Cornell Dupree b 19 December 1942, d 8 May 2011.