Tadd Dameron Birthday Celebration at Smoke

Nick Catalano

Columnist since 1998

Dr. Nick is a TV writer/producer and professor of Literature and Music at Pace University.

Recent articles (118 total)

Published: March 3, 2012

Tadd Dameron was born on Feb. 21 in 1917, and for the past few years, Smoke has celebrated his birthday over President's weekend. This year the tribute featured tenor saxophonists George Coleman George Coleman
b.1935
sax, tenor and Eric Alexander Eric Alexander
b.1968
sax, tenor on alternating nights, with a rhythm section of drummer Joe Farnsworth Joe Farnsworth
b.1968
drums , bassist John Webber John Webber
and pianist Richard Wyands Richard Wyands
b.1928
piano .

Tadley Ewing Peake Dameron hailed from Cleveland and began his arranging work with swing bands, writing for Harlan Leonard Harlan Leonard
b.1905 , Jimmie Lunceford Jimmie Lunceford
1902 - 1947
composer/conductor , Coleman Hawkins Coleman Hawkins
1904 - 1969
sax, tenor , Count Basie Count Basie
1904 - 1984
piano and Artie Shaw Artie Shaw
1910 - 2004
clarinet . Very little of this swing writing has survived in present-day retrospectives—a glaring omission, given his later popularity. In the early '40s, he became enamored with bebop and began gigging in New York leading groups as a pianist. At various times such bebop stalwarts as Fats Navarro Fats Navarro
1923 - 1950
trumpet , Miles Davis Miles Davis
1926 - 1991
trumpet , Sonny Rollins Sonny Rollins
b.1930
saxophone , Dexter Gordon Dexter Gordon
1923 - 1990
sax, tenor and Wardell Gray Wardell Gray
1921 - 1955
sax, tenor performed in his groups. His bebop writing was much in-demand and appeared in arrangements for the pioneering Billy Eckstine Billy Eckstine
1914 - 1993
vocal and Dizzy Gillespie Dizzy Gillespie
1917 - 1993
trumpet bop orchestras. His signature song "If You Could See Me Now" was written for Sarah Vaughan Sarah Vaughan
1924 - 1990
vocal later in the decade and in 1948 his orchestral piece "Soulphony" was world-premiered at Carnegie Hall by Gilespie's band.

Dameron's writing has endeared itself to many performers in the post-bop era and the celebration at Smoke drew guests such as drummer Jimmy Cobb Jimmy Cobb
b.1929
drums , all eager to join the party. On the other hand perfunctory analysis of his work has led to some critical misconceptions—that he failed to sufficiently incorporate bop rhythms and other stylistic devices. Revisionist critical commentary of Dameron's contribution is much needed and that is bound to come because of tributes like the one at Smoke.

On the night I attended I had to catch the last of three sets and, by that time, most of the Dameron standards had already been performed. Actually, only one of his compositions, "Ladybird," was left, but Webber dazzled the late nighters on this tune with some interesting intervallic leaps. Dameron's melodies often transcend octaves, making them difficult for singers—which may be the reason vocal recordings of his songs are relatively rare. But knowledgeable instrumentalists find the heads fodder for exploratory improvisations.

Dameron's groups in the early '50s often featured trumpeter Clifford Brown Clifford Brown
1930 - 1956
trumpet , who continually performed and recorded Dameron tunes like "The Scene is Clean" throughout his career. After years of drug abuse, which included a two-year prison sentence, Dameron passed away in 1961 at age 48 but his music has never been forgotten thanks to many tributes such as the annual birthday celebration at Smoke.