Dameronia

Dameronia was the band drummer Philly Joe Jones put together in the early 1980s to play the music of Tadd Dameron from the original arrangements, which trumpeter Don Sickler transcribed and conducted. After two studio albums and Jones's death in 1985, Sickler kept the nonet going, and this is its concert record. It was taped in May 1989 at the Théâtre de Boulogne-Billancourt, just outside Paris, and Soul Note released it in 1994. All nine pieces are Dameron's.

The concert took place on May 30, 1989, during the fifth season of a spring jazz series that year devoted, as Dan Morgenstern's liner notes recall, to the theme "Around Charlie Parker". Didier Gervais recorded it and Giovanni Bonandrini produced. Sickler and Virgil Jones play trumpet, Benny Powell trombone, Frank Wess alto saxophone and flute, Clifford Jordan tenor and Cecil Payne baritone. The rhythm section is pianist Walter Davis Jr., bassist Larry Ridley and Kenny Washington, who had taken over the drum chair after Jones. The programme opens with Hot House, the Dameron tune most associated with Parker, which suited the festival's theme. Lady Bird, Good Bait, Soultrane and The Squirrel follow. Philly J. J., the longest performance at over nine minutes, is a nod to the band's founder. Fontainebleau closes the hour.

This is the original Soul Note CD, catalogue number 121 202-2, released in 1994.