Tadd Dameron

Tadley Ewing Peake Dameron was born on the twenty-first of February 1917 at Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Isaiah Dameron — a Cleveland Black professional — and Ruth Peake Dameron. He was raised in the principal Cleveland Black community of the principal post-Great-Migration Cleveland Cedar-Central neighbourhood.

He was instructed in piano from age seven — and was hired in 1937 by the principal Zack Whyte Chocolate Beau Brummels orchestra at Cincinnati as a junior arranger.

He joined the principal Harlan Leonard's Rockets at Kansas City in 1939 — and was the principal arranger of the principal Harlan Leonard's Rockets Bluebird Records sessions of 1940. He arranged for the principal Coleman Hawkins Big Band in 1941, the principal Andy Kirk Twelve Clouds of Joy in 1941, the principal Count Basie (placed in this archive) Orchestra in 1942, the principal Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra in 1942, and the principal Dizzy Gillespie Big Band in 1945.

He was a principal post-1945 New York Minton's Playhouse and Monroe's Uptown House bebop developmental community arranger — alongside Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Kenny Clarke, and the principal post-1945 bebop developmental community.

He composed the principal bebop signature compositions across the principal mid-1940s — including 'Good Bait' of 1944, 'Hot House' of 1945, 'Our Delight' of 1946, 'If You Could See Me Now' of 1946, 'Lady Bird' of 1948, and 'On a Misty Night' of 1948.

He led the principal Tadd Dameron Sextet at the principal Royal Roost at New York in 1948 — alongside the principal trumpeter Fats Navarro, the principal saxophonist Allen Eager, the principal bassist Curly Russell, and the principal drummer Kenny Clarke. The principal Royal Roost residency Tadd-Dameron-Sextet broadcast performances of the principal 1948 Royal-Roost residency-period are at this day the principal foundational documents of the principal post-1948 American bebop-composer-and-arranger canon.

He collaborated with the principal trumpeter Miles Davis at the principal 1949 Paris International Jazz Festival in May 1949 — and at the principal 1949 Capitol Records sessions of the principal Miles Davis Nonet for the principal Birth of the Cool sessions.

He was institutionalised at the principal United States Public Health Service Hospital at Lexington, Kentucky for narcotic addiction across the principal 1956 to 1958 period.

He composed across the principal post-1958 commercial period the principal long-form jazz compositions Fontainebleau of 1956 and The Magic Touch of 1962.

He died at New York on the eighth of March 1965 of complications of cancer, at forty-eight.

He is honored here as the principal bebop composer-arranger of the American jazz tradition.