01 November 2022
(Until 01 November)Tadd Dameron – Phantom Dancer 1 Nov 2022
Greg Poppleton's Phantom Dancer swing jazz radio show
Tadd Dameron, U.S jazz composer, arranger, and pianist, is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist. He was the most influential arranger of the bebop era. He also wrote charts for swing and hard bop players.
The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.
LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 1 November) and two years of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/
TADD
Tadd Dameron arranged for Count Basie, Artie Shaw, Jimmie Lunceford, Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughan. His greatest influences were George Gershwin and Duke Ellington.
In 1940-41 he was the piano player and arranger for the Kansas City band Harlan Leonard and his Rockets. With lyricist Carl Sigman he wrote “If You Could See Me Now” for Sarah Vaughan and it became one of her first signature songs.
In the late 1940s, Dameron wrote arrangements for Gillespie’s big band, who gave the première of his large-scale orchestral piece Soulphony in Three Hearts at Carnegie Hall in 1948.
That same year, as you’ll hear on this week’s Phantom Dancer, Dameron led his own group in New York, which included Fats Navarro.
In 1949 he was at the Paris Jazz Festival playing piano for Miles Davis.
From 1961 he scored recordings by Milt Jackson, Sonny Stitt, and Blue Mitchell.
He arranged and played for rhythm and blues musician Bull Moose Jackson. Playing for Jackson at that same time was Benny Golson, who was to become a jazz composer in his own right. Golson has said that Dameron was the most important influence on his writing.
DAMERON
Dameron composed several bop and swing standards, including “Hot House”, “If You Could See Me Now”, “Our Delight”, “Good Bait” (composed for Count Basie) and “Lady Bird”.
His bands from the late 1940s and early 1950s featured leading players such as Fats Navarro, Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins, Wardell Gray, and Clifford Brown.
LATER
In 1956 he led two sessions based on his compositions, released as the 1956 album “Fontainebleau” and the 1957 album “Mating Call”. The latter featured John Coltrane.
Dameron developed a drug addiction by the end of his career. He was arrested on drug charges in 1957 and 1958, and served time (1959–60) in a federal prison hospital in Lexington, Kentucky.
After his release, Dameron recorded a single notable project as a leader, The Magic Touch, but was sidelined by health problems. He had several heart attacks before dying of cancer in 1965, at the age of 48.
1 NOVEMBER PLAY LIST
Play List – The Phantom Dancer | ||
107.3 2SER Tuesday 1 November 2022 | ||
Set 1 | Count Basie | |
Open + One O’Clock Jump (theme) + Dinah | Count Basie Orchestra | ‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 2 Oct 1945 |
Baby, Won’t You Pleae Come Home? | Count Basie Orchestra (voc) Jimmy Rushing | ‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 2 Oct 1945 |
Basie Boogie | Count Basie Orchestra | ‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 2 Oct 1945 |
| Rock-a-Bye Basie | Count Basie Orchestra (ts) Illinois Jacquet | ‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 2 Oct 1945 |
Set 2 | Selling Soft Drink | |
Coca Cola Waltz (theme) + Instrumental | Walter Blaufuss and the The Refreshment Club Orchestra | ‘The Refreshment Club’ Radio Transcription Chicago 23 Nov 1936 |
Running a Temperature + Stepping Out to the Opera | Joan and The Escorts | ‘The Refreshment Club’ Radio Transcription Chicago 23 Nov 1936 |
I Can’t Give You Anything But Love | Helen Jane Balke | ‘The Refreshment Club’ Radio Transcription Chicago 23 Nov 1936 |
Tom Tom’s Drum + Sing, Baby, Sing + Close | Walter Blaufuss and the The Refreshment Club Orchestra | ‘The Refreshment Club’ Radio Transcription Chicago 23 Nov 1936 |
Set 3 | Benny Goodman | |
So In Love | Benny Goodman Orchestra (voc) Terri Swopes | ‘One Night Stand’ AFRS Re-broadcast 22 Mar 1949 |
Blue Lou | Benny Goodman Sextet | ‘One Night Stand’ AFRS Re-broadcast 22 Mar 1949 |
Don’t Worry About Me | Benny Goodman Orchestra (voc) Buddy Greco | ‘One Night Stand’ AFRS Re-broadcast 22 Mar 1949 |
El Greco + Let’s Dance (theme) | Benny Goodman Orchestra | ‘One Night Stand’ AFRS Re-broadcast 22 Mar 1949 |
Set 4 | Tadd Dameron | |
Jumpin’ with Symphony Sid (theme) + The Squirrel | Tadd Dameron Quintet | ‘Symphony Sid Show’ Royal Roost WMCA NYC 28 Aug 1948 |
Good Bait + Anthropology | Tadd Dameron Quintet | ‘Symphony Sid Show’ Royal Roost WMCA NYC 28 Aug 1948 |
Kitchenette Across the Hall | Tadd Dameron Quintet (voc) Pancho Kenny Hagood | ‘Symphony Sid Show’ Royal Roost WMCA NYC 28 Aug 1948 |
Rifftide (Lady Be Good) + Jumpin’ with Symphony Sid (theme) | Tadd Dameron Quintet | ‘Symphony Sid Show’ Royal Roost WMCA NYC 28 Aug 1948 |
Set 5 | Trad Jazz | |
These Foolish Things | Joe Bushkin (piano) Benny Morton (tb) | ‘Eddie Condon Floor Show’ WPIX TV NYC 13 Dec 1948 |
Someday | Louis Armstrong | Wintergarden Theatre WNBC NBC NYC 19 Jun 1947 |
Indiana | Billy Butterfield | ‘Eddie Condon Jazz Concert’ Blue Network 27 Jan 1945 |
Riverside Blues | Muggsy Spanier | Club Hangover KCBS San Francisco 11 Apr 1953 |
Set 6 | The Golden Seven | |
Darf ich bitten | Die Goldene Sieben | Comm Rec Berlin Apr 1936 |
Granada (In a Little Spanish Town) | Die Goldene Sieben | Comm Rec Berlin May 1938 |
Oh! Aha! | Die Goldene Sieben (voc) Rudi Schuericke Terzett | Comm Rec Berlin Feb 1939 |
Die Uhr Schlaegt 8 | Die Goldene Sieben | Comm Rec Berlin Apr 1938 |
Set 7 | 1930s Swing | |
Do the New York | Gus Arnheim Orchestra | Radio Transcription Cocoanut Grove Los Angeles 1931 |
The Music Goes Round and Round | Paul Whiteman Orchestra | ‘Paul Whiteman’s Musical Varieties’ WJZ NBC Blue NYC 19 Jan 1936 |
Moten Swing + King Poeter Stomp | Count Basie Orchestra | Chatterbox Hotel William Penn WCAE NBC Red Pittsburgh 10 Jan 1937 |
You Turned the Tables on Me + Song is Ended (theme) | Bunny Berrigan Orchestra | ‘Norge Program’ Radio Transcription NYC 1937 |
Set 8 | Modern Jazz | |
| Four in a Bar | Paul Baron Sextet | ‘Music til Midnight’ WABC CBS NYC 1944 |
| Ridin’ High | Benny Goodman orchestra (voc) Ella Fitzgerald | ‘Texaco Show’ NBC TV 9 Apr 1957 |
| Undecided (theme) + st Louis Blues | Charlie Shavers Quartet | ‘London House’ WBBM CBS Chicago May 1962 |
