The Month of June

Abstract

In 1952, Clifford Brown met someone with the unlikely name of Tadley Ewing Peake Dameron. Born in Cleveland in 1917, Dameron had written arrangements for Dizzy Gillespie's big band, and his major orchestra piece, “Soul-phony”, was premiered by the band at a Carnegie Hall concert in 1948. That same year, Dameron led a group in New York that featured Fats Navarro. In 1952, he was involved with various groups in the New York–Philadelphia area and had become an important figure for jazz record producers. In the last weeks of May 1953, Brown became suddenly more active on the bebop scene. He was being besieged by leaders to record and appear with them, but it was Dameron's band that interested him the most. A recording date with Dameron's band was scheduled for June 11. Meanwhile, altoist Lou Donaldson, under contract to Blue Note Records, had long sought out Brown for a record date, slated for June in New York.