Tadd Dameron

Tadd Dameron ranks as the leading composer and arranger of the bebop years, creating enduring standards that include “Good Bait,” “Our Delight,” “Hot House,” “Lady Bird,” and “If You Could See Me Now.” Beyond crafting melodies, he supplied complete orchestrations and remained a decisive influence from the mid-1940s onward, even though he never achieved financial security. His professional path began during the swing era when he toured with the bands of Zack Whyte and Blanche Calloway; in New York he also wrote for Vido Musso and, most significantly, supplied arrangements for Harlan Leonard’s Kansas City Orchestra, several of which were committed to record. Before long he was preparing charts for Jimmie Lunceford, Count Basie, Billy Eckstine, Dizzy Gillespie between 1945 and 1947, and Sarah Vaughan as well. Although Dameron habitually downplayed his own abilities at the keyboard, he performed with Babs Gonzales’ Three Bips & a Bop in 1947 and directed a sextet that first featured Fats Navarro and later Miles Davis at the Royal Roost from 1948 into 1949. He shared leadership of an ensemble with Davis at the 1949 Paris Jazz Festival, remained abroad for several months to write for Ted Heath, and then returned to New York. That same year he contributed scores to Artie Shaw’s final orchestra, subsequently played and arranged rhythm-and-blues material for Bull Moose Jackson from 1951 to 1952, and in 1953 led a nonet that spotlighted Clifford Brown and Philly Joe Jones. Substance-abuse issues gradually hampered his work. After completing a pair of albums, among them the 1958 session Mating Call with John Coltrane, he served a prison term that lasted from 1959 into 1961. Upon release he again supplied material for Sonny Stitt, Blue Mitchell, Milt Jackson, and Benny Goodman, yet his activity diminished in the period leading to his death from cancer. His landmark Blue Note dates of 1947–48, the 1949 Capitol recordings, and the Prestige/Riverside sessions from 1953, 1956, 1958, and 1962 remain available on compact disc.