Bob Dorough encompasses a wide arc of American music. He is rooted in the Americana of a Hoagy Carmichael or Johnny Mercer, energized under the counter-cultural fervor and swell of the bebop jazz revolution, a witty and literate songwriter of sophisticated pieces, a cultural icon of children’s songs, and a vivid interpreter of the American popular songbook with a unique personal vision. We will explore all aspects of his career during the program. Bob Dorough was born in Arkansas on Decem...
Bob Dorough encompasses a wide arc of American music. He is rooted in the Americana of a Hoagy Carmichael or Johnny Mercer, energized under the counter-cultural fervor and swell of the bebop jazz revolution, a witty and literate songwriter of sophisticated pieces, a cultural icon of children’s songs, and a vivid interpreter of the American popular songbook with a unique personal vision. We will explore all aspects of his career during the program.
Bob Dorough was born in Arkansas on December 12, 1923 and raised in rural areas across Arkansas and Texas. He received formal musical education in Plainview Texas High School; drafted into the Army during World War II, he served with a special services musical unit, and after the war studied in the renowned music program at North Texas State University.
Upon graduating in 1949, Bob moved to New York City and a cold water East Side flat to immerse himself in the modern jazz scene. At one point he was hired by boxer Sugar Ray Robinson to play music for his rhythm in training, and Robinson then enlisted Bob for his dance review, which brought him to Paris. While in Paris, Bob teamed with Blossom Dearie and the Blue Stars of France vocalists. Back in the States, Bob recorded his first album for Bethlehem in 1956, “Devil May Care”, which has become a vocalese classic.
The itinerant hipster, Bob was in California in the late ‘50's, with beatniks and Lenny Bruce and great California cool musicians; next with Fran Landesman and Tommy Wolf in St. Louis; back in New York solicited by Miles Davis to write and record vocals, including the sardonic “Blue Xmas”; teaming along the way with the Dave Frishberg’s, the Dearie’s, Landesman’s et al to develop a style of hip songwriting exemplified at its best by the song “I’m Hip”.
By the late 60's Bob played with hippie bands such as “Spanky and Our Gang” and developed a “pop art” style in the manner of “Love: Webster’s Definition”.
Another chapter in Bob’s career unfolded when he was hired in the early 1970's to write the songs for a new ABC children’s TV special “Schoolhouse Rock”. That then-youthful generation now knows what’s the function of “Conjunction Junction” and lionizes Dorough.
Having settled in the musicians' haven of the Delaware Water Gap/Pocono region of Northeastern Pennsylvania, from that base for many decades Dorough toured the world spreading his musical vision with elan and joy, a sparkling pianist and vocalist purveying the richness of jazz and popular music with a sense of verve and swing, and singing his own compositions and the gems of the American Popular Songbook invested with both a homespun twang and an urbane understanding.
Bob died peacefully in his PA home on April 23, 2018 at the age of 94, active until the end. Shortly before his death, Dorough was selected to be a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, an award which was formally bestowed posthumously in 2019.
originally broadcast December 17, 2023
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