Description
Highly influential, yet virtually unknown,Tadd Dameron influenced the greats. These are some of his elusive works!
Tadd Dameron (1917-1965) is a man relatively unknown to many today. As an arranger and composer his work was largely in the background…However, his impact gives us insight as to his importance. From 1947 to 1950, he recorded music that inspired, indeed showed the way, for Horace Silver, Benny Golson, Frank Foster, Gigi Gryce, and Quincy Jones. Performed brilliantly by Paul Combs and band.
While Dameron is fairly well-known for some eight compositions that have become part of the jazz canon, there are many more of his works that deserve our attention. The 12 selections recorded here were either never recorded, or only recorded rarely, and not easily available.
“Conversation” (1940) was copyrighted along with other pieces Tadd wrote for Harlan Leonard; “Moon From The East” (1962) was written for Benny Goodman’s USSR tour in 1962; “Take A Chance On Spring”(1963), with lyric by Maely Danielle, was recorded by Karin Krog and Per Husby on a record that won an award in Europe; “Don’t Forget It” (1942) written during Dameron’s tenure with Jimmie Lunceford, is very much in the vein of the popular songs of the day-It was never recorded; “The Search” (1948) was copyrighted along with some other tunes that were recorded by Dizzy Gillespie at the time; “Never Been In Love” (1963), lyric by Irving Reid, was first recorded by Bill Lee and Muriel Winston; “Sando Latino,”written for a 1962 Milt Jackson session on Atlantic, was lost in a vault fire at Atlantic that year; “A La Bridges” (1940) was written for and recorded by Harlan Leonard’s Kansas City Rockets; “Zakat” (ca 1945) was written for Jimmie Lunceford, it was never recorded; “Come Close”(1962) only appears as a piano arrangement filed with the Copyright Office. The title and the melody suggest that Dameron had a lyric in mind, none have come to light; “The Rampage” (1956) shares some thematic material with “Small Groove,” which Tadd wrote for Woody Herman around this same time, and may have been the basis for the Herman version. This is its first recording.
Paul Combs, saxophonist/arranger (Dameron’s biographer) and 11 great musicians:
Alex Aspinall; Derek Cannon; Ken Cook; <b>Bill Cunliffe</b>; Jeff Denson; Alex Frank; Melonie Grinnell; Kamau Kenyatta; Richard Sellers; Rob Thorsen; Danielle Wertz
