Sonny Dallas

Sonny Dallas, Frank Dallas ( born October 27, 1931 in Rankin, Pennsylvania as Francis Dominic Joseph Rankin, † July 22, 2007 in Long Iceland, New York) was an American jazz bassist and music educator.

Sonny Dallas had professional at just eight appearances as a singer; after studying the bass playing with Herman Clements, he was bass player with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. In the early 1950s he played in the orchestras of Charlie Spivak, Ray Eberle, Claude Thornhill and Les Elgart, before he went to New York in 1956. There he worked with Sal Salvador, Bobby Scott, Chet Baker, Buck Clayton, Lee Konitz / Warne Marsh, Phil Woods / Gene Quill, Zoot Sims / Al Cohn, Elvin Jones, Mary Lou Williams, Bill Evans, George Wallington, Jackie Paris and Lennie Tristano. In the late 1960s he moved to Long Iceland, graduated with a Master of Arts in Music Pedagogy and henceforth worked at the Suffolk County Community College and Dowling College.

Disco Graphical Notes

• Lee Konitz: Motion ( Verve, 1961)
• Nat Pierce: The Ballad of Jazz Street (Hep Records, 1961)
• Lennie Tristano: Continuity ( Jazz Records, 1958-64 )
• Lennie Tristano: Note to Note ( Jazz Records 1964 /65)
• Phil Woods: Warm Woods ( Lonehill Jazz, 1957)

Swell

• Bielefeld catalog 1988 & 2002
• Richard Cook & Brian Morton: The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings, 8th Edition, London, Penguin, 2006 ISBN 0-141-02327-9
• Obituary in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

• Jazz bassist
• Music teacher
• American musician
• Born in 1931
• Died in 2007
• Man