eJazzNews Archive

Sonny Dallas Memorial Concert

Originally published on eJazzNews · · Obituaries

On September 10, 2007, eJazzNews announced a free memorial concert in New York for the bassist and singer Sonny Dallas, who had died on Long Island on July 22, 2007, with an obituary that had appeared in several jazz publications. Dallas (1931-2007) is best remembered as the bassist on Lee Konitz’s 1961 trio album Motion with Elvin Jones, and for his years in Lennie Tristano’s circle. The English Wikipedia article on Dallas cites this notice as a source.

What the 2007 report said

The announcement set the concert for Monday, September 17, 2007, from 7 to 10 pm at Saint Peter’s Church, 619 Lexington Avenue, with free admission. Saxophonists Richard Tabnik and Bob Keller organized it, with remembrances and performances by friends of Dallas. The notice named several musicians associated with Tristano, among them saxophonist Jimmy Halperin and pianist Connie Crothers, with bassist Ed Schuller and drummer Roger Mancuso as the house rhythm section.

The obituary that followed said Dallas began his career in Pittsburgh in the late 1940s, moved to New York in 1955 and worked with Tristano, George Wallington, Lee Konitz, Warne Marsh and Phil Woods. It listed Motion, the Phil Woods and Gene Quill album Phil Talks with Quill, and Tristano’s Descent into the Maelstrom and Note to Note. A longer biography in the same post said he died of heart failure at Brookhaven Hospital, that he later earned a master’s degree in music education and taught at Suffolk County Community College and Dowling College, and that he received a lifetime achievement award in jazz in 2005. One paragraph gave his age as 76 and another as 75; with a birth date of October 27, 1931, he was 75.

From Rankin to the Tristano circle

Dallas was born Francis Dominic Joseph Dallas in Rankin, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. His bass teacher was Herman Clements, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s principal bassist, and by the mid-1950s he was working for the bandleaders Charlie Spivak, Ray Eberle and Claude Thornhill. According to the 2007 biography, in New York he played and recorded with Sal Salvador, Tony Scott, Chet Baker, Zoot Sims and Bill Evans, but his closest musical tie was to Tristano, the pianist and teacher whose students included Konitz, Marsh and tenor saxophonist Ted Brown.

Jazz Records, the label Tristano founded, issued June 1964 performances from New York’s Half Note by a quintet of Tristano, Konitz, Marsh, Dallas and drummer Nick Stabulas on its CD Continuity. According to the label, Note to Note comes from informal duo sessions that Tristano recorded with Dallas at his studio on Palo Alto Street in Hollis, Queens, in 1964 and 1965; following Tristano’s wish that the music be released with drums, it was re-recorded with Carol Tristano on drums in 1993. The label’s reissue of Descent into the Maelstrom includes two 1966 trio pieces, “Stretch” and “Con Con,” with Dallas and Stabulas.

Motion was recorded on August 29, 1961, and produced by Creed Taylor for Verve. The album has five standards. On the opening “I Remember You,” Dallas’s bass lines carry the song’s structure while Konitz phrases across the bar lines, and on “Foolin’ Myself” the roles reverse, with Konitz supporting a Dallas solo. The Penguin Guide to Jazz placed it in its Core Collection. For the style, see our guide to cool jazz.

What happened next

Several of the musicians named in the 2007 notice have since died. Phil Woods died on September 29, 2015, at 83. Connie Crothers died on August 13, 2016. Lee Konitz died in a New York hospital on April 15, 2020, at 92, of pneumonia brought on by Covid-19. Jazz Records reissued Descent into the Maelstrom on CD in 2014 with previously unreleased material. Saint Peter’s Church, where the memorial was held, has hosted a weekly Jazz Vespers service since 1966 and is marking the 60th anniversary of its jazz ministry in 2026.

Where to start listening

  • Motion (Verve, 1961): the Konitz, Dallas and Elvin Jones trio, with Dallas’s lines holding the tunes together.
  • Note to Note (Jazz Records, 1993): Tristano and Dallas in the private 1964 and 1965 sessions, with drums added later.
  • Descent into the Maelstrom (Jazz Records, 2014 CD): includes the 1966 trio tracks with Dallas and Stabulas.

Sources

This page is based on an article from the original eJazzNews archive (2001 to 2018), with background and sources added in 2026. The original text is not republished here. You can read the original as it appeared on eJazzNews via the Internet Archive.
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