New Dameronia: Paul Combs and "Unheard Dameron"

"Good Bait". "Our Delight". "Hot House". "If You Could See Me Now". "Soultrane". "Lady Bird". "On a Misty Night". "Tadd's Delight". All jazz standards, or close to it, and all from the pen of a brilliant soul who is starting to fade from collective memory. But not if Paul Combs can help it.

Above: Tadd Dameron (photographer and date unknown)

Above: Saxophonist and Dameron biographer Paul Combs

The composer was Tadd Dameron (1917-1965), a solid pianist and brilliant crafter of song whose career was cut short by drugs and cancer. Beloved by the bebop community, Dameron wrote tunes and played for some of the finest, from Lunceford and Basie to Dizzy and Trane. His profile was once strong enough that Philly Joe Jones led a popular tribute band, Dameronia, for a couple of decades. Yet today, because he died at only 48 and spent much time out of the public eye, Dameron is mostly known for writing the above handful of standards and little else.

Enter saxophonist, music educator, and Dameron biographer Paul Combs, whose book research unearthed a dozen or so Dameron compositions that were either lost to obscurity or completely unheard. Combs has compiled and arranged those tunes for a new album from Summit Records, Unheard Dameron. While the release has some shaky elements to it, the strength and fun of the Dameron compositions will be readily apparent and appreciated by jazz fans whether or not they are familiar with their creator. (But by all means, familiarize yourself with Tadd Dameron!)

The tunes span Dameron's entire career. A couple, "Zakat" and "Don't Forget It", were written for and performed by the Jimmie Lunceford band but never recorded. "The Search" was written for Dizzy Gillespie, who made "Hot House" a standard but didn't record this present piece. "Conversation" and "A La Bridges" were penned in the early 40s for Harlan Leonard, a lesser-known bandleader who left music after the War. Norwegian vocalist Karin Krog, known to fans of European jazz for her collaborations with John Surman, recorded "Take a Chance on Spring" and "Never Been in Love" in the 80s, but apparently the albums never saw U.S. release. After Milt Jackson waxed "Sando Latino" for an album in 1962, the tapes were lost in a vault fire. There's a pattern here: fate too often stood in Tadd Dameron's way.

As might be expected, all of the tunes fit nicely into the bebop mold upon which Dameron built his name, with the occasional Latin flair or hint of darkness. (Personal opinion: "The Rampage" was either inappropriately titled to begin with or arranged by Combs without the title in mind, as it's a pretty laid-back tune with no sense of rampage about it.)

The material here was recorded in four different sessions in 2017 and '18. The bands on Unheard Dameron include pianists Bill Cunliffe, Kamau Kenyatta, Melonie Grinnell, and Ken Cook; trumpeter Derek Cannon; bassists Jeff Denson, Alex Frank, and Rob Thorsen; percussionists Richard Sellers and Alex Aspinall; and vocalist Danielle Wertz. The rhythm sections are tight and intuitive, and Wertz's clear, bright voice lends the vocal tunes a nice contemporary flair that negates their vintage nature.

The downside to the album is pretty evident but certainly not a deal-killer: as a saxophonist, Combs sounds ill-prepared for his own sessions. His solos are often tentative, particularly on alto; meandering and lacking in creative flair, they indicate that the leader could have benefited from quite a bit more rehearsal time. His baritone solos on "The Search" and "A La Bridges" are a bit more confident and better constructed. Intonation is also a bugbear for both Combs and trumpeter Cannon, sometimes painfully so. Again, practice might not make perfect, but more of it would have probably made for a cleaner listening experience.

Performance glitches aside, Unheard Dameron is a worthwhile addition to your collection, particularly if you have a head for jazz history. You will find a great deal of enjoyment here, and perhaps some current musicians will see fit to add more Dameron to their own canon.

Above: Album cover, Unknown Dameron (Summit Records, 2019)