The Complete Blue Note and Capitol Recordings

Navarro, Fats and Tadd Dameron

album cover

When Tadd Met Fats . . .

This compilation documents the brief, extraordinary collaboration of two woefully overlooked jazz geniuses. The material comes from the pen of pianist and composer Tadd Dameron (1917–1965), whose tricky yet supremely logical tunes balance bebop macho against a warm-hearted lyricism. Taking these pieces to the next level is the trumpeter Fats Navarro (1923–1950), a fireballer with a radiant tone and technique to burn, whose recording career only lasted four years.

Not every speed demon could handle Dameron's compositions, which are far more demanding than the typical heat-and-serve jam-session riffs. Navarro, who first attracted attention in 1945 when he replaced Dizzy Gillespie in the Billy Eckstine band, makes them seem easy. He begins his turn on Dameron's bebop agility course "Our Delight" with clipped single notes, then broad and effusive lines that carry the distant hint of taunting blues. His solo ends with an ascending series of perfectly placed triplets that's so precise it seems to startle the rhythm section. That's not the only "how'd he do that?" stunner either: The alternate take of "Our Delight" features an even more blistering Navarro solo, one of several here that have been taken apart, note for note, by generations of jazz trumpeters.

These small group recordings were made in the late 1940s, for Blue Note. Even though Navarro could literally play anything, he did his best work contending with the unconventional minefields Dameron loaded into these tunes. To hear that happening at a dizzyingly high level, check out "Focus" and any of the several versions of "Bouncing with Bud." These pieces have all the Dameron trademarks—the off-center chords and backdoor resolutions, the loping lines that wander a step or two away from the conventional. Dameron's music is challenging stuff, in part because it demands more than the razzle-dazzle technique that defined so much jazz of the 1940s: It asks soloists to dig deep and share something of their souls as well.

Genre: Jazz
Released: 1995, Blue Note
Key Tracks: "Our Delight," "Focus," "What's New," "Bouncing with Bud," "Boperation"
Catalog Choice: Fats Navarro with Tadd Dameron Live; The Magic Touch of Tadd Dameron
Next Stop: Freddie Hubbard: Backlash
After That: Charles Mingus: Blues and Roots
Book Pages: 541–542