The Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz and the Institute of Contemporary American Music presents a Master Class with Bob Dorough Wednesday, March 30, from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM, in Room 342, Fuller Music Center. Bob Dorough, legendary composer, vocalist, and pianist who has recorded with Miles Davis and wrote Schoolhouse Rock for public television, gives a master class for both the jazz and composition departments, open for public observation. Admission is free, but space is limited. For more information visit www.hartford.edu/hartt or call 860768.4862.
Dorough is widely known for his work on Schoolhouse Rock classics such as Conjunction Junction, Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here!, Shot Heard Round the World, and Elementary, My Dear.
About Bob Dorough
Born in Arkansas and raised in Texas, Dorough immediately fell in love with music upon joining the Plainview Texas HS Band. He served three years in a Special Services Army Band Unit, gaining much professional experience as an arranger, clarinetist, saxophonist, pianist, and entertainer (1943-45). After earning a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of North Texas (1949) he went to New York City, where he took classes at Columbia University and immersed himself in the emerging bebop scene.
In 1952, he devoted himself solely to jazz performance, specializing in piano/vocals. After years of accompanying, conducting, arranging, and playing, he made his first recording as a leader (1956), Devil May Care, having written the title tune three years earlier. He is known as "the only singer to record with Miles Davis," recording two vocals with Davis in 1962, "Nothing Like You" and "Blue Xmas," both of which Dorough composed. Davis also recorded an instrumental version of Bob's classic song "Devil May Care" that same year.
In 1971 he received a commission to "set the multiplication tables to music." This led to ABC-TV's SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK, Saturday morning cartoons that aired from 1973 to 1985. The show came back for another five years in the 1990s and is now enjoying its 30th anniversary with a DVD edition of the entire series, for which Dorough served as Musical Director. In 1995 he signed with the prestigious jazz label Blue Note Records and has done three CDs for them (Right On My Way Home, Too Much Coffee Man, and Who‘s On First).
Now residing in Pennsylvania, he has received honors from that state (the Governor's Artist of the Year Award) and from his native state (the Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame). In 2002, his trio was chosen to represent the State Department and Kennedy Center as an Ambassador of Jazz and Blues. The one-month tour saw them play some 22 workshops and concerts in thirteen cities in six different countries. Currently recording on Arbors, Candid, and his own label, Bob Dorough continues to perform and educate the US and abroad. For more information about Bob, visit www.bobdorough.com.
The Hartt School is the comprehensive performing arts conservatory of the University of Hartford that offers innovative degree programs in music, dance, and theatre. Founded in 1920, Hartt has been an integral part of the University of Hartford since its charter merged the then Hartt School of Music, the Hartford Art School, and Hillyer College to create the University in 1957. 2010 marked Hartt's 90th year of providing world class performing arts education to students in Greater-Hartford and around the world. With more than 400 concerts, recitals, plays, master classes, dance performances, and musical theatre productions a year, performance is central to Hartt's curriculum. For more information about The Hartt School, visit www.hartford.edu/hartt.
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