Apr 8, 2025 1:23 PM
Blue Note Jazz Festival New York Posts 2025 Lineup
Blue Note Entertainment Group has unveiled the lineup for the 14th annual Blue Note Jazz Festival New York, featuring…
Bob Dorough (1923–2018)
(Photo: Courtesy bobdorough.com)Bob Dorough, the jazz singer, pianist and arranger who reached generations of fans with his compositions for the Schoolhouse Rock! educational video series, has died. He was 94. NPR reported that he passed away on April 23 in Mt. Bethel, Pennsylvania, according to his wife, Sally Shanley Dorough.
A native of Arkansas, Dorough played in a U.S. Army band during the early 1940s and later earned a bachelor of music degree from what now is the University of North Texas.
His debut album, Devil May Care, was released on the Bethlehem label in 1956. The title track became a widely recorded jazz standard. Other leader albums in his discography include Just About Everything (1966); Multiplication Rock (1973); Skabadabba (1987); a collaboration with Dave Frishberg released by Blue Note, Who’s On First? (2000); and But For Now, a Bob Dorough Trio album featuring Michael Hornstein, released by Enja in 2015.
Dorough famously provided the vocals for the version of “Nothing Like You” on Miles Davis’ 1967 album Sorcerer.
Among Dorough’s composition that were used in the Schoolhouse Rock! educational cartoons are “Conjunction Junction,” “Three Is A Magic Number,” “Electricity, Electricity” and “Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here.”
Dorough continued performing concerts until shortly before his death.
DownBeat contributor Allen Morrison reviewed the singer’s Aug. 16, 2014, concert at Kitano in New York. To read this archival story, click here. DB
The Blue Note Jazz Festival New York kicks off May 27 with a James Moody 100th Birthday Celebration at Sony Hall.
Apr 8, 2025 1:23 PM
Blue Note Entertainment Group has unveiled the lineup for the 14th annual Blue Note Jazz Festival New York, featuring…
“I’m certainly influenced by Geri Allen,” said Iverson, during a live Blindfold Test at the 31st Umbria Jazz Winter festival.
Apr 15, 2025 11:44 AM
Between last Christmas and New Year’s Eve, Ethan Iverson performed as part of the 31st Umbria Jazz Winter festival in…
“At the end of the day, once you’ve run out of differences, we’re left with similarities,” Collier says. “Cultural differences are mitigated through 12 notes.”
Apr 15, 2025 11:55 AM
DownBeat has a long association with the Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference, the premiere…
“It kind of slows down, but it’s still kind of productive in a way, because you have something that you can be inspired by,” Andy Bey said on a 2019 episode of NPR Jazz Night in America, when he was 80. “The music is always inspiring.”
Apr 29, 2025 11:53 AM
Singer Andy Bey, who illuminated the jazz scene for five decades with a four-octave range that encompassed a bellowing…
Davis was a two-time Grammy winner for liner notes.
Apr 22, 2025 11:50 AM
Francis Davis, an august jazz and cultural critic who won both awards and esteem in print, film and radio, died April…
