Tadd Dameron facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Tadd Dameron
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Tadd Dameron, New York, between 1946 and 1948
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Tadley Ewing Peake Dameron |
| Born | February 21, 1917 Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | March 8, 1965 (aged 48) New York City |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer, arranger |
| Instruments | Piano |
| Years active | 1940s–1960s |
Tadley Ewing Peake Dameron (born February 21, 1917 – died March 8, 1965) was an American jazz musician. He was a talented composer, arranger, and pianist.
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About Tadd Dameron
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Tadd Dameron was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He became a very important arranger during the bebop era of jazz. Bebop is a fast and complex style of jazz music. Tadd also wrote music for other jazz styles like swing and hard bop.
He created music for many famous bands. These included bands led by Count Basie, Artie Shaw, Jimmie Lunceford, Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Eckstine, and Sarah Vaughan. From 1940 to 1941, he played piano and arranged music for the Kansas City band called Harlan Leonard and his Rockets.
Tadd Dameron and lyricist Carl Sigman wrote a song called "If You Could See Me Now". This song became one of Sarah Vaughan's first big hits. Tadd said that his biggest musical inspirations were George Gershwin and Duke Ellington.
In the late 1940s, Tadd wrote music for Dizzy Gillespie's big band. Dizzy's band even performed Tadd's large orchestral piece, Soulphony in Three Hearts, at Carnegie Hall in 1948. Also in 1948, Tadd led his own group in New York. Famous musicians like Fats Navarro played with him. The next year, Tadd went to the Paris Jazz Festival with Miles Davis. Later, in the 1960s, he wrote music for recordings by Milt Jackson, Sonny Stitt, and Blue Mitchell.
Tadd Dameron also arranged and played for rhythm and blues musician Bull Moose Jackson. A musician named Benny Golson played with Jackson at the same time. Benny Golson later became a well-known jazz composer himself. He said that Tadd Dameron was the most important person who influenced his own music writing.
Famous Songs and Bands
Tadd Dameron composed several popular jazz songs, known as standards. Some of his famous tunes include "Hot House", "If You Could See Me Now", "Our Delight", "Good Bait" (which he wrote for Count Basie), and "Lady Bird".
The bands Tadd Dameron led in the late 1940s and early 1950s featured many top jazz players. These included Fats Navarro, Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins, Wardell Gray, and Clifford Brown.
In the mid-1950s, Tadd led recording sessions for albums based on his compositions. These albums were called "Fontainebleau" (released in 1956) and "Mating Call" (released in 1957). The album Mating Call featured the legendary saxophonist John Coltrane. Tadd Dameron faced health challenges and sadly passed away from cancer in 1965, when he was 48 years old. He is buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.
Remembering Tadd Dameron
Many musicians and critics have honored Tadd Dameron's work:
- In the 1980s, drummer Philly Joe Jones and trumpeter Don Sickler started a band called Dameronia. This band played only the music of Tadd Dameron.
- Saxophonist Dexter Gordon called Tadd the "romanticist" of the bebop movement. This means he brought a beautiful, emotional feeling to the music.
- Music critic Scott Yanow said Tadd Dameron was the "definitive arranger/composer of the bop era". This means he was the best and most important at writing and arranging music for bebop.
- Saxophonist Joe Lovano included five of Tadd's songs on his 2000 album 52nd Street Themes.
- In 2006, trumpeter Peter Welker released an album called Duke, Billy And Tadd. It was a tribute to Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, and Tadd Dameron.
- Turkish drummer Ferit Odman released Dameronia with Strings in 2015. This album featured eight of Tadd Dameron's songs.
- Trumpeter Joe Magnarelli's 2019 album If You Could See Me Now is also a tribute to Tadd Dameron.
- In 2019, singer Vanessa Rubin released an album titled The Dream Is You: Vanessa Rubin Sings Tadd Dameron.
Albums by Tadd Dameron
Tadd Dameron released several albums as a leader:
- The Dameron Band (Featuring Fats Navarro) (Blue Note)
- Anthropology (Spotlite)
- Cool Boppin'
- The Miles Davis/Tadd Dameron Quintet In Paris Festival International De Jazz May, 1949 (Columbia)
- A Study in Dameronia (Prestige)
- Fontainebleau (Prestige)
- Mating Call (Prestige)
- The Magic Touch (Riverside)
- The Tadd Dameron Band (Jazzland)
See also
In Spanish: Tadd Dameron para niños
