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Press Release
June 6, 2003
Modern Jazz Schoolhouse Rocker presents unique jazz vocalese to
Monday Jazz
[Little Rock, AR.]
Bob Dorough on piano and vocals will perform on
Monday June 16, 2003, 8 PM, at the Afterthought, (501) 663-1196
Beechwood and Kavanaugh.
Accompanying Mr. Dorough will be Joe Vick on bass and Dave Rogers on drums.
Tickets are $10, available from Capitol Keyboard (501) 228-9999 or The Afterthought.
Bob Dorough, born in Arkansas and "raised " in Texas, immediately fell in love with music upon joining the Plainview Texas High School Band. The talented Band Master who "drafted" young Robert soon had him playing clarinet, arranging and composing for the 60-piece band, and conducting the Junior High Band. After three semesters as Band Major at nearby Texas Tech, Robert was indeed drafted by Uncle Sam and served almost three years in the Special Services Army Band Unit, gaining much professional experience as arranger, clarinetist, saxophonist, pianist, and entertainer (1943-45).
Earning a Bachelor of Music degree (Composition Major, Piano Minor) in 1949 at The North Texas State Teacher's College (now North Texas University), he made a bee-line for New York City where he took classes at Columbia University and immersed himself in the volatile jazz scene then taking place there. In 1952 he turned his back on the academic scene to devote himself to jazz performance, specializing in piano/vocals and writing songs to feature his unique style, making a living as well as he could, sometimes as a accompanist or as a sideman in some band or other, always with his main goal in mind. He has indeed recorded a number of albums, LPs, CD's, etc., as band leader, pianist, and singer. He also recorded two vocals with the great Miles Davis (1962).
He served as musical director for Sugar Roy Robinson while the boxer was in show business (1952-4). During this period he shard the stage with such giants as Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines, and Count Basie, ending up in Paris where he worked as a singing pianist for 5 months in th the Mars Club, developing his style and repertoire and leading to his first recording as leader (1956) for the Bethlehem label ... Devil May Care, Included in this album was Yardbird Suite, with Bob's vocalese lyric set to the music of Charlie Parker on the occasion of Parker's death (1955).
It seems however that Bob Dorough was destined to be an educator and thus an academician. In 1971 he received a commission to "set the multiplication tables to music." His very provocative results led to a small industry, being the beginning of ABC-TV's Schoolhouse Rock, Saturday morning cartoons that entertained and instructed unsuspecting children during the years 1973-1985. The impact of this media exposure was unpredictably immense. The subjects of Grammar, History, and Science were added in the ensuing years and , when the program resumed in 1992, a fifth subject, Finances, was produced. As overall director of audio recordings, Mr. Dorough had soon recorded some fifty of these three-minute educational cartoons, winning Emmys, Grammys, and (best of all) the undying gratitude of thousands of Generation Xers, who recognize his voice today, even when he sings on of his "hip", obscure jazz songs. Furthering this academic trend he has served as a adjunct professor in the music department at the East Sroudsburg University in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. He was inducted into the Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame in 1996. www.arjazz.org.
Dorough is currently a Blue Note Records artist with recordings Right On My Way Home (1997), Too Much Coffee Man (2000), and his latest Bob Dorough and Dave Frishberg - Who's On First?...(2000). The Bob Dorough Trio with Steve Berger and Pat O'Leary plays Sunday Brunch from 11-3 PM at the Iridium Jazz Club, Broadway at 51st, New York. Enter next to the Winter Garden theater.
Bob Dorough will be in Arkansas from June 16 - 22, 2003. He will play the Monday Jazz Project at the Afterthought , Beechwood and Kavanaugh ... Little Rock tickets (501) 663-1196 or 228-9999, one night only with Joe Vick on bass and Dave Rogers at the drums. June 18th he will travel to Hot Springs, Arkansas for an Educational Conference - The Web Generation with George Newall & Gil Dyrli. Saturday, June 21st he will play a benefit house concert for the North Arkansas Jazz Society in Fayetteville, Arkansas, 8 PM, contact Robert Ginsburg,(479) 521-1255 or 442-0990 for information.
Contact Bob Dorough for interviews at (570) 897-6296 or email sincere@sunlink.net.
Future Monday Jazz Project dates;
June 23 - Steve Struthers Trio. with Steve Struthers-guitar, Joe Vick-bass, and Dave Rogers-drums, 8 pm, $5 cover.
June 30 - Monday Jazz Project Jam Session with Dan Sieckman-guitar, Joe Vick-bass, and Dave Rogers-drums. Jam players signup starting at 7:45 pm in After thought Foyer, 8 PM, $5 cover, $1 Jammers.
July 7 - Herman Green, saxophone with Buck Powell-piano, Joe Vick-bass, and Dave Rogers-drums, 8 pm, $5 cover.
July 14 - vocalist Miles Griffith. with Michael Jefry Stevens-piano, Joe Vick-bass, and Dave Rogers-drums, 8 pm, tickets $10, available from Capitol Keyboard (501) 228-9999 or the Afterthought (501) 663-1196.
July 21 - Walter Henderson, trumpet/vocals with Buck Powell-piano, Joe Vick-bass, and Dave Rogers-drums, 8 pm, $5 cover.
July 29 - Monday Jazz Project Jam Session with House Trio. Jam players signup starting at 7:45 pm in After thought Foyer, 8 PM, $5 cover, $1 Jammers.
All dates at the Afterthought 2721 Kavanaugh, Little Rock. (501) 663-1196. The Monday Jazz Project is sponsored by The Arkansas Jazz Heritage Foundation (www.arjazz.org), with special assistance from the Afterthought Seating is General Admission. For more information on the Monday Jazz Project contact Cecil Rich at (501) 228-9999.
Food: The Beechwood Grill is now open next to the Afterthought, its No-Smoking, 11 AM to 9 PM, Monday thru Saturday, same menu in the Afterthought 5:30 to 9 PM.
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