The composer, performer and polymath of music, Bob Dorough, died on Monday, April 23 at age 94. Dorough was known primarily as a bop and cool jazz pianist and singer, but gained another kind of fame with his contributions to the TV series, Schoolhouse Rock!.
Dorough was raised in the rural Texas town of Plainview, listening to the music of the Swing Era on radio, and already composing music as he worked behind a hand plow on the family property. He pursued music in high school where clarinetist Robert Coleman Davidson, conductor of the Plainview High School band, saw talent in young Dorough. Davidson gave him free clarinet lessons and put him to work writing music. At the same time, Dorough was experimenting with music at home on the fam
ily piano. It wasn’t long before Dorough pulled together a few buddies to form a jazz band in which he played second tenor sax parts on the clarinet from stock music charts. Experimentation with instruments continued, with Dorough learning the fiddle and harmonica. Later, when he settled in New York City he took to playing pre-Bach “early music” on recorders and the viola da gamba, plus singing in an a cappella choir. He eventually concentrated on piano as the perfect instrument for composing purposes.
Dorough majored in band music at Texas Tech University and in 1943 was called up in the draft, but, ironically, was declared unfit for combat due to a punctured eardrum. He was thus assigned to a special services band in Pittsburg, CA, where, aside from official duties, he and other jazz players in the group formed combos for dances. After World War II ended, Dorough went back to Texas played local clubs and discovered the music of the beboppers, most notably the alto sax genius, Charlie Parker and trumpeter, Miles Davis. After a year, Dorough enrolled at the University of North Texas at Denton., earned his bachelor’s degree and headed to New York City in 1949, where he quickly became immersed in the jazz scene and began to develop a serious career, working with the greats of the era and influencing the styles of singers such as Mose Allison, Dave Frishberg, Mark Murphy and Kurt Elling. In 1956, Dorough recorded his first album as a leader, Devil May Care.
The 1970s brought Dorough fame with the animated TV series, Schoolhouse Rock!, where, from 1973-85, his music educated kids in a range of subjects. His initial assignment was to put the multiplication table to music. His “Three Is a Magic Number” became a popular and instant hit. Dorough went on to create more tunes for the series, and in the decades from then till his death continued to compose, record and actively gig nearly up until the end. Bob Dorough considered himself a troubadour. He was that and so much more. As he joins the pantheon of greats who have gone before, he will be missed by his peers and fans alike.
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