At the age of 21, after teaching himself to play the piano, Tadd Dameron began his career as a professional musician in the orchestras of Freddie Webster and Blanche Calloway. From Cleveland, he moved to Chicago, where he wrote his first arrangements, before moving to New York and then, in the early '40s, to another great jazz city, Kansas City. A renowned composer and arranger, he wrote a large number of themes that served as a reference for the younger generation of boppers, of which he was one of the leaders, whether performing them in small groups or in large modern orchestras. His compositions were played throughout the '40s, '50s and '60s, before entering the privileged list of jazz culture's essential standards. After leading a big band himself, Tadd Dameron was back at the helm of small bands in the late '40s. At the time, he enjoyed intense musical - and even friendly - relationships with Phyllie Joe Jones, Dexter Gordon, Charlie Parker, Benny Golson, Miles Davis, Fats Navarro, Dizzy Gillespie, Clifford Brown, Sarah Vaughan, Kenny Clarke, Milt Jackson and many other artists of that generation. After spending several months in Europe, Tadd Dameron returned to the U.S. in the early '50s, spending a year with a rhythm'n'blues band, then resuming his position as leader by calling on some of the most illustrious musicians of the be-bop and hard bop styles. In the early '60s, after a few run-ins with the law forced him to withdraw from the stage for a while, he re-emerged mainly as an arranger for remarkable soloists such as Sonny Stitt and Milt Jackson. But illness forced him to retire from the stage for good in 1964, a year before he died after taking part in a final concert organized in a club in his honor.
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