Tadd Dameron

Avid Jazz continues with its Four Classic album series with a re-mastered 2CD release by Tadd Dameron, complete with original artwork and liner notes. “Fats Navarro Featured With The Tadd Dameron Quintet”; ”Fontainebleau”; Tadd Dameron with John Coltrane-“Mating Call” and ”The Magic Touch”. Starting out in the 1940’s swing era, writer, pianist, arranger and conductor Tadd Dameron went on to become one of the foremost arranger/composers of the bop era. Amongst the great names he has worked with are:- Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Sonny Stitt, Milt Jackson, Fats Navarro, Benny Goodman and Dizzy Gillespie.

This fine set, recorded on November 30, 1956, has been reissued several times, often as a John Coltrane date, but make no mistake, this is a Tadd Dameron session, and his elegant compositions are its key component. Coltrane was fresh off playing with Miles Davis in 1956 and was still a year away from heading his own sessions and three years away from recording Giant Steps, so it might be said that he was in transition, but then when was Coltrane not in transition? Dameron wisely gives him plenty of space to fill, and the rhythm section of John Simmons on bass and the great Philly Joe Jones on drums (not to mention Dameron's own characteristically bass-heavy piano style) give Trane a solid bottom to work with, and if the spiritual and edgy emotion of his later playing isn't quite in place yet, you can feel it coming…

Tadd Dameron - The Magic Touch (1962) {Riverside OJCCD-143-2 rel 1992}
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© 1962, 1992 Riverside / Fantasy | OJCCD-143-2
Jazz / Bop / Progressive Jazz

Tadd Dameron is known to proclaim that he became an arranger rather than stay an exclusive instrumentalist because it was the only way he could get his music played. In retrospect, considering his best-known works are widely revered, few of them are frequently played by other bands, and only the finest musicians are able to properly interpret them. Dameron's charts had an ebb and flow that superseded the basic approach of Count Basie, yet were never as quite complicated as Duke Ellington. Coming up in the bop movement, Dameron's music had to have been by definition holding broader artistic harmonics, while allowing for the individuality of his bandmembers.

While there are only four men present for this session and arranging is certainly not stressed, Tadd’s composing is as potent as ever with such memorable items as “Mating Call,” “Soultrane,” “Gnid,” and “On a Misty Night” far above the usual “originals” that often appear on a recording date. To play these compositions, the aid of tenorman John Coltrane was enlisted. Trane’s tenor answered the mating call of Tadd’s music. Tadd’s intelligent comping, the strength of veteran John Simmons’s bass and the brightly burning power of the consistent Philly Joe Jones adds up to the solid sum that is the rhythm section. Each track has something to offer: the exotic “Mating Call,” the aptly named ballad that is “Soultrane”…

Miles Davis & Tadd Dameron - In Paris Festival International De Jazz, May 1949 (1991) {Sony Music Japan SRCS 5695}
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© 1949, 1991 CBS / Sony Music Japan | SRCS 5695
Jazz / Bebop / Trumpet / Piano

Miles Davis was best-known during the late '40s for offering an alternative approach to trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Fats Navarro, emphasizing his middle register, a softer tone and a more thoughtful approach. This concert performance, which was not released until nearly three decades later, shows that Davis was just as capable of playing hard-driving bebop as most of his contemporaries. In a quintet with tenor-saxophonist James Moody and pianist-composer Tadd Dameron, Davis confounded the French audience by playing very impressive high notes and displaying an extroverted personality. Never content to merely satisfy the expectations of his fans, he was already moving in surprising directions. This LP also gives one a very rare opportunity to hear Miles Davis verbally introducing songs in a voice not yet scarred.

Tadd Dameron with John Coltrane - Mating Call (1956) {Prestige RVG Remaster PRCD-30163 rel 2007}
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© 1956, 2007 Prestige / Concord | PRCD-30163 | 24-bit remaster
Jazz / Hard Bop / Bop / Piano / Saxophone

This November 1956 date marked the first recording of the deeply moving ballad “Soultrane,” and the first exposition as well of the lovely line “On a Misty Night” (based on “September in the Rain”), a number Dameron would later explore himself in other contexts. This is not a typical Tadd Dameron date in that his music is not played by a large ensemble or even a quintet. He is represented as a composer but not as an arranger. Yet his pungent themes come through strongly, carried by the searing, probing tenor saxophone of John Coltrane.

Tadd Dameron - Fontainebleau (1956) {Prestige OJCCD-055-2 rel 1987}
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© 1956, 1987 Prestige / Fantasy | OJCCD-055-2
Jazz / Bop / Piano

Pianist-composer-arranger Tadd Dameron led relatively few sessions in his career, making the half-hour of music on this CD reissue quite valuable. Dameron performs five of his originals (best-known are the complex "Fontainebleau" and "The Scene Is Clean") with an octet comprised of trumpeter Kenny Dorham, trombonist Henry Coker, altoist Sahib Shihab, tenor saxophonist Joe Alexander, baritonist Cecil Payne, bassist John Simmons, drummer Shadow Wilson and the leader's sparse piano. As is usual with most Dameron dates, the emphasis is on his inventive arrangements although there is space (most notably on the 11-minute blues "Bula-Beige") for individual solos. Recommended.