Dave Tough

David Jarvis "Dave" Tough, sometimes with the name Davie or Davey ( born April 26, 1907 in Oak Park, Illinois; † 9 December 1948 in Newark, New Jersey), was a drummer of Hot Jazz and Swing. " A rousing beat and a variable percussion technology" made ​​him one of the most important Euro-American drummer in dixieland and swing.

Life

The son of well -to-do parents, his passion for jazz led him first to the Austin High Gang (according to the affluent suburb of Chicago, Austin, ) where many white jazz musicians who later played mainly in Eddie Condon's band, her music career began. As a close friend of Bud Freeman he played 1923/24, during the school holidays, before he became a professional drummer in 1925. From 1927 to 1929 he played in Europe with Danny Polo and in the band of George Carhart in Paris, where he also played with Mezz Mezzrow. After his return in 1929 he played with Benny Goodman and Red Nichols, but then interrupted in the early 1930s due to illness his music career. In 1936 he was briefly in Ray Noble Orchestra and then 1936/37, in the Tommy Dorsey. It was followed by engagements at Red Norvo, and Bunny Berigan Benny Goodman (1938 as a temporary replacement for Gene Krupa ) before then in 1939 played at Tommy and then at Jimmy Dorsey. In addition, he also played Dixieland Swing with Jack Teagarden, Mezz Mezzrow and Bud Freeman. He was short with Artie Shaw and Charlie Spivak in the 1940s and played during his military service from 1942 to 1944 in the U.S. Navy in the band of Shaw in the South Pacific. Mainly he is today because of its time 1944/45, in the First Herd Woody Herman remembered.

In September 1945 he left Herman and worked with Joe Marsala, with Eddie Condon (1946 ) - come from that year his single recordings under his own name - with Jazz at the Philharmonic, with Charlie Ventura (1947 ) and 1947/48 with Muggsy Spaniards. Tough had lifelong health problems that forced him repeatedly breaks, and was also an alcoholic. He died of a skull fracture during a fall on the road.

Work

Tough was an accomplished and imaginative drummer who stood in 1945 at the top of the Downbeat polls. As one of the first drummer of the Chicago jazz he resorted to the tactics of African-American musicians. Joachim Ernst Berendt made ​​in the development of Drum Performance at Swing big bands (since his time with Tommy Dorsey ) to the side of Jo Jones from the Count Basie Orchestra. To virtuosic solos he had no great inclination; he was therefore at the former audience less known than about stars like Gene Krupa. He was more of a Musicians' Musician who sensitively set in as the soloist in the big bands in his accompanying game. Tough also had the reputation of an intellectual writer with a talent for what he later but not systematically pursued. In the 1930s Tough wrote a regular column in the American jazz magazine Metronome.

Lexigraphic entries

• Carlo Bohländer inter alia: Reclams jazz leader. Reclam, Stuttgart, 1970.
• Ian Carr et al: Jazz Rough Guide. Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-476-01584- X.