Jump to content

Bob Dorough Dies at 94


BeBop

Recommended Posts

How sad....

What a nice man and à superb entertainer   he was. Spent à great evening listening to him when he was at NY's Iridium club back in 2004. He had amusing reminiscences of playing in Paris decades earlier. He introduced me to the great Barbara Lea who was at the club. He will be missed!

His vocal on Miles Davis 'Blue Christmas' is a minor masterpiece!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Never that much of a "fan" myself, but I have come to appreciate his multi-faceted skills and contributions. RIP.

The one facet of his work that I appreciated immediately (and before I knew anything about else who he was) was his contributions to Spanky & Our Gang. The album with the bright yellow cover that was packaged like a 45 is a particularly good record.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I met Bob Dorough once in August 1996. It was at the Red Rock recording studio in the Delaware Water Gap in Pennsylvania. I was with my good friend John Norris who was producing the Sackville recording - Danny D'imperio - The Outlaw. Bob dropped by to say hello to the musicians. He seemed to be a very warm and friendly guy.

I always particularly enjoyed  the Dorough album - Devil May Care.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

I imagine he must have performed some of his Schoolhouse Rock material at gigs, one would have to think. I'd be curious to hear some of those live versions. May have to go searching on YouTube later and see what I can find.

He most certainly did at Iridium, and he would bring people up from the audience who knew the songs to sing backup!

My fave Bob Dorough tune:

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm very saddened to hear this.  I've long been a fan of his music.  I'm grateful I got to see him perform twice, once with Dave Frishberg and once with Dan Hicks as part of one of his "Holidaze In Hicksville" shows.  He was a great live performer, always full of energy, joy and humor. 

Thanks Mr. Dorough for decades of great music

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/24/2018 at 4:53 PM, JSngry said:

 

 

 

Wow!! Shades of Chris Dedrick and Gene Puerling! 

I knew that the jazz/studio guitarist Stuart Scharf had something to do with Spanky & Our Gang, but I never knew Bob did, also.

Did Bob do the vocal arrangements? Did they also write and arrange, 'I'd Like To Get To Know You'?

I love finding jazzers involved with some of the groups of the 60s, like I mentioned in the Tandyn Almer thread about that guy from the Hi-Los doing the vocal arrangements on the Association's album.

I loves me dat 'sunshine pop'- Free Design, High Llamas, Judee Sill, etc...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not sure of the extent of his total involvement, but he's got some credits from the first album on (there were just three initially), arranger, producer, etc. usually in tandem with Scharf.

This was on the first album, but I don't see full production credits until the second.

This was also on that record, no Dorough in site credit-wise, but I've always had a soft spot for it, just too damn cute to be really good, but as far as cute goes, this is the real deal.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just listened to the sides with Miles this morning, first time in years. They could have made a really fine full-length album together.

I need to dig into my Miles & Gil box liners and see, but it seems so unlikely that Miles' and Bob's orbits would have ever intersected.

But I must say the irregular form of those tunes, and Dorough's wild phrasing really put Miles in a unique context.

Nice obit in the Washington Post yesterday too (or was it the day before). I'll have to post that too.

Interesting guy, who really found his calling.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

RIP. Quite a multi-talented guy. Not too often you see someone with credits on Blossom Dearie, Miles Davis and John Zorn albums. He was also an accomplished recorder player and did some classical albums with recorder heavyweights such as LaNoue Davenport as well as the Medieval Jazz Quartet album, which is quite a blast.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

In 1970, Dorough and guitarist Stuart Scharf, got a contract for a 4-song EP for Scholastic Magazines.  They covered 'hit' songs of the time, with socially relevant themes.  However, they did a wild treatment of 'Runaway Child, Running Wild', with Dorough imitating ALL the voices of the Temptations.  If this isn't crazy enough, Steve Swallow plays bass and keyboards and Bill Goodwin handles funky drums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoRwZui_KHc    

 

Sorry, it was an upper case for one letter.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoRwZUi_KHc

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...