The man Dexter Gordon referred to as “the romanticist of the bop movement,” composer, arranger and pianist Tadd Dameron was born in Cleveland, Ohio on February 21, 1917. His mother taught Tadd to play piano as a child, but "not to read, but by memory."

Dameron was perhaps the most influential arranger of the bebop era, but also composed and arranged for hard bop and swing ensembles. He was first exposed to jazz by his older brother, a saxophonist, who played him records of the big bands on the 1930s. By his early 20s Tadd was pianist and arranger for a band out of Kansas City called Harlan Leonard and his Rockets. In the mid-1940s he teamed with lyricist Carl Sigman to write If You Could See Me Now for Sarah Vaughan, a song that would become one of her early signature tunes.

By the late 1940s Dameron was writing arrangements for Dizzy Gillespie’s big band and leading his own group in New York City that featured trumpet player Fats Navarro. He also wrote for the ensembles led by Count Basie, Artie Shaw, Jimmie Lunceford and Billy Eckstein. Tadd Dameron is the composer of several jazz standards including Hot House and Lady Bird. As a performer, Dameron recorded the album “Fontainebleau” in 1956, and the following year made a record with John Coltrane titled "Mating Call."

Dameron developed an addiction to narcotics toward the end of his career. He was arrested on drug charges in 1957 and 1958 and served two years in a federal prison hospital. After his release, Dameron recorded a single notable project as a leader, “The Magic Touch” in 1962, but was sidelined by health problems; he had several heart attacks before dying of cancer in 1965 at the age of 48.

Here is a link to one of Dameron's best-known compositions:

"LADY BIRD"