Walt Dickerson

Walt Dickerson registered a strong impression upon surfacing in the opening years of the 1960s, capturing the Down Beat Critic's Poll New Star designation in 1962, although his profile receded sharply in later decades. He completed his studies at Morgan State College in 1953. Following military service between 1953 and 1955, he established himself in California and fronted a group that featured Andrew Cyrille and Andrew Hill. During the height of his activity in the early 1960s, Dickerson appeared regularly in New York clubs. He collaborated with Sun Ra on the 1965 recording Impressions of a Patch of Blue. Not long afterward he stepped away from performance for close to ten years before resuming in 1975. Between 1977 and 1978 he produced the majority of his output for Steeplechase, among them duo sessions with Sun Ra, guitarist Pierre Dørge, and bassist Richard Davis. That same year he also cut quartet material alongside pianist Albert Dailey. One of the rare vibists attuned to free jazz methods, Dickerson nevertheless remained fully grounded in post-bop vocabulary. Although he issued no further leader dates after 1982, he continued to play in the vicinity of his native Philadelphia until his death from cardiac arrest in Willow Grove, PA, in May 2008.