Barry Harris – Barry Harris Plays Tadd Dameron (1975) https://youtu.be/7K8RXTtM9ZE Original Liner Notes: It has been 10 years since Tadd Dameron died. His passing left voids in jazz composition and arrangement that have still not been filled. Nobody has surfaced in the Dameron tradition with the talent for melodic originality and harmonic acuteness coupled with the ability to score uniquely that Tadd possessed. Worse than this, however, is that most contemporary jazz players are either unaware or uncaring of Tadd's legacy, which contains so many musical gems. The neglect of this great artist's works is scandalous. A few of his songs are still played and remembered by a minority, but many other pieces have been relegated to an unworthy limbo, awaiting rediscovery. It takes a Barry Harris to reveal again the miraculous beauty of Tadd Dameron's writing, to show us how Dameronian structures were magical vehicles for improvisation. It takes a Barry Harris with the courage, knowledge, singular ability, and commitment to tackle such an assignment and bring it off with absolute sincerity and deep conviction.
Barry plays Tadd Dameron, a dream realized. It has long been a pet project of Mr. Harris and producer Don Schlitten, whose association with this master pianist dates back to 1964. In those 11 years Don has produced four Harris-led sessions and twenty-one (as of this date) on which Barry was at the keyboard. They have built a lasting relationship based on trust and understanding; a rare rapport between artist and producer has been achieved.
When Mr. Schlitten founded Xanadu Records, the team entered a new and significant phase. Barry, naturally enough, became Xanadu's 'house pianist,' and he can already be heard enhancing three important albums in the Silver Series: Sonny Criss's Saturday Morning (Xanadu 105), Sam Noto's Entrance! (Xanadu 103), and singer David Allyn's remarkable Don't Look Back (Xanadu 101). Now it is Barry's own turn and time for him to pay a heartfelt tribute to bebop's finest composer.
Barry's enthusiasm for Dameron is not surprising. Like Tadd, Harris is a pianist who shares Tadd's vision of lyrical and logical art. You won't encounter an ugly phrase in any Dameron melody or arrangement; the same is true of any Harris performance. At a Harlem club called Diggs' Den, Barry once addressed some well-chosen remarks to the audience: "You've all heard of Abraham Lincoln—right? Then you should also know about Tadd Dameron. If you don't, check the history books, but you won't find him there."
You won't even find Tadd Dameron in many of the so-called histories of jazz, yet he was almost as vital in the development of the music as Bird, Dizzy, and Monk. Tadd was probably the pioneer in putting bebop on paper. He was certainly the first composer-arranger to adapt the language of small-group bop to the big band format, as you can appreciate from the charts he supplied for the Eckstine, Gillespie, and Georgie Auld orchestras. By comparison with Duke Ellington, Tadd's output may seem relatively small—I would guess at no more than 50 compositions—but they are all superbly crafted pieces, mostly sparkling miniatures save for a couple of extended works (Fontainebleau, Soulphony). Dameron shaped each melody carefully, and then came the task of scoring it for a large or medium-sized ensemble. Because he was so far ahead of his time, Tadd was dubbed "The Prophet" by his fellow trailblazers. He was a teacher and encourager of young stars like Fats Navarro, Wardell Gray, Allen Eager, Benny Golson, and Clifford Brown. Barry Harris served in a similar capacity to colleagues in Detroit during the 1950s.
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Barry Harris – Barry Harris Plays Tadd Dameron (1975)
https://youtu.be/7K8RXTtM9ZE
Original Liner Notes:
It has been 10 years since Tadd Dameron died. His passing left voids in jazz composition and arrangement that have still not been filled. Nobody has surfaced in the Dameron tradition with the talent for melodic originality and harmonic acuteness coupled with the ability to score uniquely that Tadd possessed. Worse than this, however, is that most contemporary jazz players are either unaware or uncaring of Tadd's legacy, which contains so many musical gems. The neglect of this great artist's works is scandalous. A few of his songs are still played and remembered by a minority, but many other pieces have been relegated to an unworthy limbo, awaiting rediscovery. It takes a Barry Harris to reveal again the miraculous beauty of Tadd Dameron's writing, to show us how Dameronian structures were magical vehicles for improvisation. It takes a Barry Harris with the courage, knowledge, singular ability, and commitment to tackle such an assignment and bring it off with absolute sincerity and deep conviction.
Barry plays Tadd Dameron, a dream realized. It has long been a pet project of Mr. Harris and producer Don Schlitten, whose association with this master pianist dates back to 1964. In those 11 years Don has produced four Harris-led sessions and twenty-one (as of this date) on which Barry was at the keyboard. They have built a lasting relationship based on trust and understanding; a rare rapport between artist and producer has been achieved.
When Mr. Schlitten founded Xanadu Records, the team entered a new and significant phase. Barry, naturally enough, became Xanadu's 'house pianist,' and he can already be heard enhancing three important albums in the Silver Series: Sonny Criss's Saturday Morning (Xanadu 105), Sam Noto's Entrance! (Xanadu 103), and singer David Allyn's remarkable Don't Look Back (Xanadu 101). Now it is Barry's own turn and time for him to pay a heartfelt tribute to bebop's finest composer.
Barry's enthusiasm for Dameron is not surprising. Like Tadd, Harris is a pianist who shares Tadd's vision of lyrical and logical art. You won't encounter an ugly phrase in any Dameron melody or arrangement; the same is true of any Harris performance. At a Harlem club called Diggs' Den, Barry once addressed some well-chosen remarks to the audience: "You've all heard of Abraham Lincoln—right? Then you should also know about Tadd Dameron. If you don't, check the history books, but you won't find him there."
You won't even find Tadd Dameron in many of the so-called histories of jazz, yet he was almost as vital in the development of the music as Bird, Dizzy, and Monk. Tadd was probably the pioneer in putting bebop on paper. He was certainly the first composer-arranger to adapt the language of small-group bop to the big band format, as you can appreciate from the charts he supplied for the Eckstine, Gillespie, and Georgie Auld orchestras. By comparison with Duke Ellington, Tadd's output may seem relatively small—I would guess at no more than 50 compositions—but they are all superbly crafted pieces, mostly sparkling miniatures save for a couple of extended works (Fontainebleau, Soulphony). Dameron shaped each melody carefully, and then came the task of scoring it for a large or medium-sized ensemble. Because he was so far ahead of his time, Tadd was dubbed "The Prophet" by his fellow trailblazers. He was a teacher and encourager of young stars like Fats Navarro, Wardell Gray, Allen Eager, Benny Golson, and Clifford Brown. Barry Harris served in a similar capacity to colleagues in Detroit during the 1950s.
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