Dave Tough | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | David Jarvis Tough |
Born | Oak Park, Illinois, U.S. | April 26, 1907
Died | December 9, 1948 Newark, New Jersey, U.S. | (aged 41)
Genres | Jazz |
Occupation(s) | Musician |
Instrument(s) | Drums |
Years active | 1925–1948 |
Dave Tough (April 26, 1907 – December 9, 1948) [1] was an American jazz drummer associated with Dixieland and swing jazz in the 1930s and 1940s.
Born in Oak Park, Illinois, United States, [1] Tough was a friend of Bud Freeman, who was part of a group of musicians known as the Austin High School Gang in Chicago. [1] In 1925, he became a professional musician, playing with Jack Gardner, Art Kassel, Sig Meyers, and Husk O'Hare's Wolverines. After two years in Europe, he returned home and played with Benny Goodman and Red Nichols. [2]
He left music for three years until 1935, then joined the big bands of Tommy Dorsey, Red Norvo, Bunny Berigan, and Benny Goodman. [2] [3] He played Dixieland jazz with Bud Freeman, Jack Teagarden, Eddie Condon, Mezz Mezzrow, and Joe Marsala. [1] In the 1940s, he played with the big bands of Charlie Spivak and Claude Thornhill, in Artie Shaw's Symphonic Swing Orchestra (1941) and the subsequent naval band led by Shaw (1942-1944), then joined Woody Herman's big band (1945). [1] He subsequently worked with Eddie Condon, Jerry Gray, Muggsy Spanier, Will Bradley and Jazz at the Philharmonic. [2]
Tough struggled with epilepsy throughout his life. He died at the age of 41 after falling down and hitting his head on the street in Newark, New Jersey. [2]
"...(Woody) Herman told (Ed) Soph that Dave Tough was an epileptic. This condition wasn't fully understood in the twenties and thirties. In many instances it was considered a mental deficency. As a recommended aid in reducing the epileptic attacks, Tough drank... ...One cold icy evening in the winter of 1949, Dave Tough was out walking on leave from a stay at a Veterans Hospital. He had an epileptic attack, fell hitting his head on the sidewalk and was dead." [4]
He was played by Shelly Manne in the 1959 Paramount Pictures biopic The Five Pennies, a biography of Red Nichols starring Danny Kaye, Barbara Bel Geddes, and Louis Armstrong.
Dave Tough has been described as "the most important of the drummers of the Chicago circle". [3]
In 2000, he was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.
With Tommy Dorsey
With Benny Goodman
With Charlie Ventura
With others