St. Julian Bennett Dash

Layout Provided By FreeCodeSource.com - Myspace LayoutsDash is most known for composing Tuxedo Junction with Erskine Hawkins and William Johnson in 1939 – a tune the band later used as its theme song.Tenor saxophonist, composer, and stylist, St. Julian Bennett Dash (1916-1974), was the oldest of seven sons of Ethel Capers and Charles St. Julian Dash of Charleston. He attended Shaw Elementary School and was a 1934 graduate of the Avery Normal Institute. At Avery, he played with the Night Hawk’s Orchestra, the Royal Crusaders, and the Carolina Cottonpickers, a seminal Charleston band established by former Jenkins Orphanage Band musicians. Dash learned the saxophone by imitating the sounds of jazz bands at the family-owned Dash Hall on 148 Smith Street – a popular dance emporium at the time. Following Avery, Dash completed two years at Alabama State Teachers College (1934-1936) where he played with The Alabama State Collegians. In 1938 in New York, Dash joined the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra and began a remarkable 20-year career as the orchestra’s tenor saxophone soloist. A consummate section player, St. Julian’s early years with the orchestra were as a member of a house band for the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. Most remember Tuxedo Junction as a standard hit by the Glenn Miller Band that has been recorded by hundreds of musicians. With Hawkins, he is featured on many recordings including No Soap, Dolomite, and Swinging on Lenox Avenue. His discography also includes original compositions such as Zig Zag, and his own recordings including Willow Weep for Me, Julian’s Dash, and A Portrait of Julian Dash featuring Charlestonian and pianist, Clifton Smalls.St. Julian Bennett Dash came from a long line of family musicians. His grandfather, Samuel (“Sammie”) B. Dash (April 30, 1870-January 30, 1933) played the fiddle, bass fiddle, piano and xylophone, and established the Dash Orchestra in the mid- to late 1800s. The orchestra is believed to have predated the famed Jenkins Orphanage Bands. A June 20, 1901 article in the News and Courier about the South Carolina Interstate and West Indian Exposition of 1901-1902, mentioned the Dash Orchestra: “Hundreds and hundreds of people, little and big, went out to the Exposition grounds yesterday…Dash’s Orchestra furnished the music for dancing in the rotunda.” Sammie Dash also operated a barbershop on King Street near Radcliffe Street, serving African Americans in the late 1800s. His wife, Emma Dash, was also a musician with interests in art and drama. Her plays were quite popular and were produced at Mt. Zion AME Church on Glebe Street in the early 1900s.Dash’s father, was also a barber and co-proprietor of Felder’s Barber Shop that was located at the intersection of King and Market Streets. He played clarinet and piano in the Dash Orchestra. The family-owned Dash Hall, formerly on 148 Smith Street and near the present Ashley Hall campus, is remembered by many Charlestonians as one of two dance emporiums (the other was Dart Hall on Kracke Street) for African Americans during the early 20th century where jazz bands played. Prior to joining Erskine Hawkins, Julian Dash played with The Revellers and The Alabama State Collegians at Alabama State Teachers College from 1934-1936, and left for New York to study embalming. He headed his own band from 1936 until he joined Hawkins in 1938. His long career with the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra as the featured tenor saxophonist lasted from the 1930s through the 1950s.When Erskine Hawkins orchestra disbanded in the mid-1950s, Dash became a part-time musician, and worked as an administrator at the home office of Merrill Lynch in New York. Interestingly, the legendary drummer, Tommy Benford, who arrived in Charleston in the early 1900s and was a former Jenkins Orphanage Band musician, was also an employee at Merrill Lynch with Dash. During Dash’s later musical years, he played with the Marlowe Morris Trio (1960s), and his own quintet in the early 1970s before retiring. Dash was a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. In addition to Tuxedo Junction, Dash recorded numerous titles under his name, and with many musicians including Hawkins, Jimmie Rushing, Buck Clayton, and Jay McShann. Several of his original compositions include: Was It a Lie, Blue Seas, Just Before Dawn, Two Shades of Blue, Julian’s Dash, among others. Dash’s discography also includes: No Soap, Dolomite, and Swinging on Lenox Avenue featuring him on tenor sax. He has joint credits for Tuxedo Junction, Zig-Zag, So Let it Be, and Deacon Dash, among others. His own recordings include A Portrait of Julian Dash that features the musical partnership of St. Julian and Charlestonian and pianist, Clifton Smalls, Willow Weep for Me, and Don’t Blame Me. Other recordings featuring Dash include Weary Blues, Bicycle Bounce, Holiday for Swing, and Big Down Home Jump. Other recordings include Going to Kansas City with Jay McShann, an album with Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster and their orchestras, and Classic Tenors, Volume 2 with Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young and Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis. CHARLESTON JAZZ INITIATIVE.