He shaped the careers of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Dizzy Gillespie and defined the sound of bebop, yet never became a household name. This episode uncovers Tadd Dameron, born in Cleveland in 1917, who began as pianist and arranger for Harlan Leonard and his Rockets and went on to bridge the orchestrated swing era and the fast, improvised world of bebop by applying Ellington- and Gershwin-influenced harmony to the new music.

We trace his co-writing of If You Could See Me Now for Sarah Vaughan, the 1948 Carnegie Hall premiere of his orchestral work with Gillespie's big band, the 1949 Paris Jazz Festival with a young Miles Davis, and his R&B stint with Bull Moose Jackson, where he mentored Benny Golson. We then cover his albums Fontainebleau and Mating Call with Coltrane, drug arrests, incarceration at Lexington, his 1962 comeback Th ...