Dameron, Tadd (actually, Tadley Ewing Peake)

Dameron, Tadd (actually, Tadley Ewing Peake ) bebop composer, arranger, leader, pianist; b. Cleveland, Ohio, Feb. 21, 1917; d. N.Y., March 8, 1965. He was inspired to follow a career as a jazz musician by his brother Caesar, a saxophonist. His first important job was with Freddie Webster’s Band in Cleveland; he then worked with Zach Whyte and Blanche Calloway. During the 1940s he was highly active as an arranger in Chicago and N.Y., writing for many bands, including Harland Leonard’s, Dizzy Gillespie’s, Jimmie Lunceford’s, and George Auld’s, among others; he also continued to play piano regularly, often with his own small band. In 1948 he led a small group at the Royal Roost that featured Fats Navarro, Allen Eager, Curly Russell, and Kenny Clarke. Among his compositions are “Hot House,” “Good Bait,” “Lady Bird,” and “Our Delight.” His ballad “If You Could See Me Now” came out of a phrase from a Dizzy Gillespie solo. In May 1949 he went to Paris to play with Miles Davis, then remained in Europe and briefly worked as staff arranger for the English bandleader Ted Heath. He returned to the U.S., and during the early 1950s worked with Benjamin “Bull Moose” Jackson and then led his own band. At a show in Atlantic City in 1953, Clifford Brown and Philly Joe Jones were part of his band; this date was recorded. He wrote arrangements for Carmen McRae and Sarah Vaughan. His career was plagued by drug addiction, as a result he served time in federal prison in Lexington, Ky. (1958–60). In the early 1960s he returned to full-time music, doing arrangements for many famous bands until his activities were curtailed by the onset of cancer, which eventually led to his death. In the early 1980s, the groups Dameronia (9 or 10 pieces led by Philly Joe Jones) and Continuum (a quintet with Jimmy Heath and Slide Hampton) performed and recorded his pieces.

Discography

Broadcast fragment, Atlantic City (1953); Study in Dameronia (1953); Fontainebleau (1956); Mating Call (1956); Magic Touch of Tadd Dameron (1962); Dameronia (1963). DAMERONIA: To Tadd with Love (his compositions; 1983). BARRY HARRIS : Barry Harris (plays Dameron compositions; 1975).

—John Chilton, Who’s Who of Jazz/Music Master Jazz and Blues Catalogue/Lewis Porter