Oscar Dennard

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Oscar Dennard (* around 1928; † 1960 in Cairo ) was an American jazz pianist .

Oscar Dennard attended Gibbs High School in St. Petersburg, Florida , later lived in Memphis, Tennessee, and Des Moines , before working for Lionel Hampton from the mid-1950s . He also appeared on a few of the Hamptons recording sessions, but rarely got opportunities for solos, such as a quartet ( visit to a skyscraper ) session for Jazztone in 1956 with Hampton, Oscar Pettiford and Gus Johnson . In January 1956 Dennard recorded in trio for the Henson label with Joe Benjamin (bass) and Osie Johnson (drums); however, the recordings remained unpublished. Dennard took part in recordings of AK Salim for Savoy Records and of Jesse Powell ( Blow Man Blow on Jubilee Records , 1959) in 1958.

Dennard formed a quartet with trumpeter Idrees Sulieman , which included bassist Jamil Nasser and drummer Buster Smith . The Dennard / Sulieman band went on a tour through Europe and North Africa in 1959, with stops a. a. in Paris, Zurich St. Gallen and Tunisia. In Paris they played on March 11, 1959 with Lester Young , René Urtreger and Jimmy Gourley ; the DB Blues was recorded by French radio, but remained unpublished. In Tangier , Dennard recorded his only album under his own name in the studio of the local radio station in July 1959, Legendary Oscar Dennard , which was released on the Japanese label Somethin 'Else. They played on it and a. Jazz standards like All of You or Stella by Starlight and Charlie Parker numbers ( Confirmation ). When he arrived in Egypt, Dennard fell ill with typhus and died in Cairo in 1960.

Slide Hampton called Dennard “ a great pianist, a real genius the most people never heard of ”. His companion Idrees Sulieman also paid tribute to the pianist, whose skills are not adequately captured in the few available recordings. Dennard participated in 18 recording sessions between 1956 and 1959.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rosalie Peck, Jon Wilson: St. Petersburg's Historic 22nd Street South , p. 60.
  2. ^ Information from Mose Allison - Blues Access
  3. ↑ Information about Oscar Dennard in Des Moines by Ellsworth Brown ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dartanyan.com
  4. ^ A b W. Royal Stokes, Living the Jazz Life: Conversations with Forty Musicians about Their Careers . P. 15.
  5. ↑ Complete Jazztone Recordings at Fresh Sound Records
  6. ^ Living Blues, Volumes 41-49, Living Blues Publications, 1978
  7. ↑ Discographic information at jazzdisco.org
  8. ↑ Review of the album Legendary Oscar Dennard by Henry M. Shteamer at Allmusic (English). Retrieved October 26, 2012.
  9. ↑ See Jazz Journal International , Volume 52, Billboard Limited, 1999, p. 10.
  10. ^ Greg Robinson: Remembering Idrees
  11. ↑ Tom Lord Discography
personal data
SURNAME Dennard, Oscar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz pianist
DATE OF BIRTH around 1928
DATE OF DEATH 1960
Place of death Cairo