Bob Dorough was born in Cherry Hill, Arkansas and grew up in Texas. He played clarinet in high school bands and received a Bachelor of Arts in Music degree from North Texas University. Three years in the Special Services Army Band gave him a lot of experience both in playing and arranging. Bob moved to New York in 1949. He enrolled at Columbia University and immersed himself into the rapidly changing jazz scene. He toured for two years with Sugar Ray Robinson, the ex-boxer’s music director, and shared stages with famouss such as Armstrong, Hines, and Basie. In Paris, Bob spent five months singing at the Mars Club. This was where he began what would be a long and fruitful musical relationship with Blossom. His debut album, Devil May Care (released on Bethlehem in 1956) was a huge success. Over the next five decades, the buzz has continued with Dorough recordings on many labels. Bob was the first and last halfway decent singer to appear in a Miles Davis album. Fran Landesman and Dave Frishberg have been Bob’s most notable songwriting collaborators over time. Many of his songs have been recorded by other vocalists and some have also found an audience as instrumentals. Gen-Xers are familiar with his voice, if not his name. They love the “Schoolhouse Rock”, videos that were broadcast on ABC-TV in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Bob was responsible for the music for approximately fifty of these timeless classics. Bob led his current trio on a State Department sponsored tour of Latin America in 2002, the same year Pennsylvania’s governor named him the state’s Artist-of-the Year. It included over twenty concerts and workshops across seven countries. Our man managed to find time to teach in East Stroudsburg University’s music department. Bob, a proud Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame inductee, now does some organic gardening at his Keystone State farmette. He still writes great songs. He continues to entertain audiences at clubs and concert halls across the globe. Bob Dorough is just now at his peak, as a multitude of admirers around the world can confirm. ~ http://www.bobdorough.com/ User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.
