Roger Dawson
| Roger Dawson | |
|---|---|
Roger Dawson 1976
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Roger Ward Dawson |
| Born | March 19, 1940 |
| Origin |
 St. Louis, Missouri, USA |
| Genres |
Mainstream jazz Post-bop Avant-garde jazz Free jazz Latin jazz Salsa music |
| Occupation(s) | Conga player, Jazz percussionist, Jazz composer, Bandleader, Disc jockey, Broadcast executive |
| Instruments | Conga, Percussion |
| Years active | 1961–1985 |
Roger Dawson (born March 19, 1940) is a jazz percussionist, conga drummer, bandleader and jazz composer. He was a leading jazz and salsa disc jockey in the USA and acknowledged as at the forefront of New York's salsa music explosion of the seventies and early eighties. He was the creator of the long running "Salsa Meets Jazz" concert series at New York's Village Gate club.
At fourteen, he was influenced by the jazz and Latin music radio shows of Gene Norman over KFI and Chico Sesma respectively on radio station KALI. Roger recalls going to Gene Norman's concerts at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium to see Erroll Garner, Miles Davis with John Coltrane and the "West Coast jazz" sounds of Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All Stars, Shorty Rogers and the Giants and the Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker Quartet. Gene Norman also owned "The Crescendo" Jazz club on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood where on his fourteenth birthday Roger met vibraphonist Cal Tjader and the great Cuban Conguero Armando Peraza who so impressed Roger that he pleaded for Peraza to begin teaching him Afro-Cuban conga drum technique.
Dawson transferred to John Muir High School in Pasadena, California where he met fellow students Vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, Bassist Herbie Lewis and pianist Nat Brown; with Roger on drums, together they formed a quartet called "The Jazz Monitors" and performed at venues in the Los Angeles area until they graduated from John Muir in 1958.
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