Tadd Dameron

Biography

Tadd Dameron was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He worked as a pianist and arranger for Harlan Leonard and his Rockets in 1940 and 1941. Dameron went on to write arrangements for the bands of Count Basie, Artie Shaw, Jimmie Lunceford, Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Eckstine, and Sarah Vaughan. With lyricist Carl Sigman, he wrote "If You Could See Me Now" for Vaughan, which became one of her early signature tunes.

Dameron named George Gershwin and Duke Ellington as his main inspirations. In the late 1940s, he arranged for Dizzy Gillespie's big band, which premiered his orchestral work Soulphony in Three Hearts at Carnegie Hall in 1948. Starting in 1961, he scored recordings for Milt Jackson, Sonny Stitt, and Blue Mitchell. He also played and arranged for rhythm and blues performer Bull Moose Jackson.

Dameron composed several bop and swing standards, including "Hot House," "Our Delight," "Good Bait" (written for Count Basie), and "Lady Bird." His bands in the late 1940s and early 1950s featured players such as Fats Navarro, Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins, Wardell Gray, and Clifford Brown. In 1956, he led sessions that became the albums Fontainebleau and Mating Call, the latter with John Coltrane. After his release from prison, he recorded The Magic Touch in 1962, but struggled with health issues, suffering multiple heart attacks before dying of cancer in 1965 at age 48. He was buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.

Tributes

In the 1980s, drummer Philly Joe Jones and trumpeter Don Sickler founded Dameronia, a band dedicated to Dameron's music. Dexter Gordon called Dameron the "romanticist" of the bop movement. Scott Yanow described him as the "definitive arranger/composer of the bop era". Joe Lovano included five Dameron tunes on his 2000 album 52nd Street Themes.

Peter Welker released Duke, Billy and Tadd in 2006 as a tribute. Ferit Odman's 2015 album Dameronia with Strings featured eight Dameron tunes. Joe Magnarelli's 2019 album If You Could See Me Now and Vanessa Rubin's 2019 album The Dream Is You: Vanessa Rubin Sings Tadd Dameron also honored him.