Gary Smulyan featuring Anaïs Reno
‘Tadd’s All, Folks’ (SteepleChase Music)

No one will argue with the idea that Tadd Dameron (1917-48) was the most influential arranger of the bebop era. Yet while the arrangements of other people’s tunes that the Cleveland-born pianist wrote for bandleaders like Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie survive mainly on records, the circumstances under which they can be performed live — usually requiring a full big band for the most part — are limited.  

Dameron supported himself primarily as an orchestrator and pianist, but somehow made only three albums as a bandleader in his lifetime. Still, his tunes — “Lady Bird,” “On a Misty Night,” “Hot House” — have been widely performed by modern jazz musicians over the last 75 years. It may make more sense to characterize Dameron as one of the most widely performed composers in the entirety of jazz.

More like Thelonious Monk than Duke Ellington, Dameron was never nearly as well known for songs with lyrics as for his purely instrumental compositions. In fact, in terms of popular slow ballads for singers written by modern jazz composers, Dameron’s “If You Could See Me Now” comes in second only to Monk’s “Round Midnight.” More recently, though, that too has been changing; in 2018, singer Vanessa Rubin released a collection of Dameron songs titled “The Dream is You.”

Now, the second Dameron songbook album in less than five years is out. Punningly titled “Tadd’s All, Folks,” it features the quintet led by ace baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan and co-starring the superb young singer Anaïs Reno. Mr. Smulyan and Ms. Reno launched the new release at Birdland this past Monday, with pianist Pete Malinverni and drummer Matt Wilson from the album, along with bassist Ugonna Okegwo. (David Wong plays bass on the recording.)

The approaches on the two projects could not be more different. Ms. Rubin’s album followed the logical path of including virtually all of Dameron’s best-known tunes, starting with “Lady Bird” and proceeding to such titles as “Soultrane” and “If You Could See Me Now.” Some of these were written as “songs,” — i.e., with lyrics — while others were conceived strictly as instrumentals, with the words being added specifically for this project.  

The melody to “Good Bait,” which most of us know from the classic 1945 record by Dizzy Gillespie, is instantaneously playable and hummable, and it’s to Dameron’s credit that he managed to come up with a workable lyric to fit this title.

“Tadd’s All, Folks” makes a point to include only songs actually written with lyrics either by the composer himself or by others in collaboration directly with him. As a result, these are probably the least known pieces in Dameron’s canon; only a few of them have been recorded previously, and most of those are among the few repeats from Ms. Rubin’s album.

“The Dream is You” is a comparatively opulent production, featuring an eight-piece orchestra and the work of five arrangers, among them such icons of the art form as Frank Foster, Benny Golson, and Jimmy Heath, most of whom were close to Dameron. “Tadd’s All, Folks” is much more open and spare, using only the two main voices, Mr. Smulyan’s eloquent baritone sax and Ms. Reno’s.

The tunes may be obscure, but all of Dameron’s work — like Monk’s or Ellington’s — is spongeworthy. The lyrics aren’t always up to the melodies, though there are some first-rate texts here. These include three by Bernie Hanighen, the producer and songwriter best known for his work with Billie Holiday and for penning the words to “Round Midnight.” Hanighen’s “Whatever Possessed Me” opens the album; Ms. Reno, only 18 at the time of the session a year ago, has not only an exceptionally textured deep mezzo, but an accordingly nuanced sense of storytelling, and the best of these words give her something to work with.

The find of the project is “This Night of Stars,” a largely unknown song uncovered by Dameron biographer Paul Combs (who wrote the helpful notes here, along with Neil Tesser). Composed in 1956, the melody is in 3/4 — roughly three years before Miles Davis and John Coltrane would essentially introduce the so-called jazz waltz; it helps to remember that Dameron served as a mentor to both of those younger men. (To this day, Coltrane’s “Moment’s Notice” sounds to me like it could have been composed by Dameron.)  

Thus, “Night of Stars” is actually not a jazz waltz, it’s a waltz waltz; I’m trying to think of some other tune to compare it to, and I’m drawing a blank. Making it even more unusual, the main soloist on “Night of Stars” is Mr. Wilson, a drummer with prodigious gifts for melody as well as rhythm in a way that reminds one of the late Shelly Manne. It’s more than icing on the cake that the lyric is by the accomplished Carl Sigman, who gave Dameron his biggest vocal standard with “If You Could See Me Now.” 

There are other gems here, like the other two Hanighen lyrics, “You’re a Joy” and especially “Sweet Life,” delivered with a samba beat. I can see any of these, and particularly “Whatever Possessed Me,” catching on with other singers, but “This Night of Stars” is such an oddity, though admittedly a beauty, that there’s no guessing what its eventual fate will be. 

Tadd Dameron’s position as a preeminent composer in the pantheon of American music has long been established, but who knew that he gave us something to sing about as well?