Dennis Day

Dennis Day’s performances span four decades. His formative musical years afforded performance opportunities in teen dance halls, high school “sock hops,” skating rinks, popular youth haunts and local clubs like Barbara’s Playhouse, in Gary, Indiana and Guys and Gals in nearby Chicago. From local talent shows in Northwest Indiana and Chicago, solos in church, and school choral ensembles in his native East Chicago, Indiana, Day eventually organized and became lead singer in a string of popular R&B and Doo-wop groups.

A racially integrated male vocal group portrayed in a 1960’s high school “sock hop” scene from late filmmaker Steve Teisech’s movie “Four Friends,”shot in Day’s high school, is in fact modeled on Day’s early group, the Valiants. The Valiants were featured on the Gary Crusader newspaper’s popular weekly radio show on WWCA A.M. During this period they were mentored by male vocal group the Dells, who much later were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The groups shared the same manager, who owned the lumber yard where both groups rehearsed.

Two Valiants singers were replaced when bass Richard Saunders and tenor Thomas Brannon were drafted to serve in Vietnam, leaving the Valiants with two of its original members, Day and Fred Kelly. To re-group, Day recruited older, more mature singers including East Chicagoans Delroy Bridgeman, Solomon Ard, Clifton Johnson, and alternate tenor Ludie Washington. Broader regional recognition came when the Valiants were signed to Gary-based Steeltown Records by Gordon Keith, who cofounded the label with Ludie Washington. Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five recorded their first single “Big Boy” on Steeltown.

In 1964 Day left Indiana and his job in the steel mill to enter Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. During his freshman year he toured with the University Choir, appearing at the Philadelphia Academy of Music accompanied by the Eugene Ormandy’s Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra. He recalls the experience fondly. “Wow, there I was �” one year removed from my sooty steel-toed boots and welder’s goggles, being cued to sing a tenor duet in one of the world’s great concert halls. It was surreal!” The renowned choir recorded two albums during Day’s tenure; one featuring Day in a tenor duet on the Christmas classic “Mary Had A Baby.”

Day continued to perform with the Valiants the following summer and during breaks from college until he married and settled into Nashville two years later. As a solo act, he and blues guitarist Frank “Silk” Smith appeared at the Grand Opening of Gary’s new Sheraton Hotel, opening for headliners the Jackson Five.

Day soon became a much sought-after demo artist on Nashville’s storied Music Row. When approached by novelty hit-maker Ray Stevens (of “Ahab the Arab” fame) to change his name to Travis Womack, he balked but continued to earn extra money as he and roommate Frank “Silk” Smith dubbed numerous demos for Columbia Screen Gems and Capitol Records artists. During this period Day formed Dino and the Dynamics, who won first place in a talent contest at Nashville’s prominent Club Barron. The group (later renamed the Jades) gained national radio exposure with the sultry ballad “My Loss, Your Gain,” produced by legendary songwriter Ted Jarrett. That recording is currently available as part of a special-edition 22-song historical compilation, Music City Soul �” Nashville’s Black Cats, distributed by Kent Records (UK).

After graduating from Fisk and returning to Chicago for graduate studies and a career in mostly the public sector, Day resumed his singing. During the 1980’s he moved to Washington, DC and turned his focus to jazz. After making a string of appearances with Grammy nominees Donald Byrd’s Blackbyrds in clubs and venues around the District of Columbia, Day eventually formed the Dennis Llewellyn Day Trio. He also reconnected with sacred choral music and was featured on a sacred choral album as part of the historic 19th Street Baptist Church’s Senior Choir, under the direction of Milton Lespere.

In 1984 Day moved to New York and made his debut at the Westchester Presbyterian Jazz Society with composer/arranger Frank Foster. Day was one of several male vocalists selected by the Blue Note Jazz Club, including Jon Hendricks and Tony Bennett, to pay homage to the late Billy Eckstein, appearing with the Duke Ellington Orchestra rhythm section.

Day has conceived and produced major musical/dramatic works at St. Peter’s Church in New York City, including “The Dream Concert” (a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King), “Jazzstoria,” and “From Doo-Wop to Jazz.” In 2007 Day was a finalist in Jazz Mobile’s Best of the Best Vocal Competition.

Day has performed in Russia and the Caribbean and in 2007 he appeared in Paris’ Latin Quarter. His performances are seen locally on Time Warner Cable channels. Continually evolving, Day has studied at the Manhattan School of Music and with such greats as Dr. Richard Harper, Nancy Moreno, Miles Griffith, the late Jackie Paris, Valerie Capers, and former Count Basie Band vocalist Melba Joyce.

In addition, Day has composed original music, now heard on his award-winning 2008 CD, “Dennis Day - All Things in Time.” The CD charted Number 39 on the College Music Journal (CMJ) national listing after five weeks, and was consistently in the top 10 radio adds among CMJ stations nationwide.

Although reviews of Day’s debut jazz release are overwhelmingly positive, some critics have taken a wait-and-see attitude, skeptically suggesting that Day’s ascendancy into the elite ranks of great male jazz singers is yet to be determined. That doesn’t seem to phase Day, who says, “I love this music and I’d sing it for free if I had to, so what one or two critics say doesn’t phase me the least.”

Day’s tracks have been #1 in hot jazz radio markets like New Orleans’ WTUL FM and Central Florida’s WUCF FM. Herb Boyd, long-time critic for the Amsterdam News writes, “What stands out most about Day is his versatility, his pleasant baritone is as warm and inviting on ballads s it is bouncy and exciting on the up-tempo tunes.” Critical reviews for Jazz Times and Jazz Improv have voiced similar approval of Day’s first major jazz foray. Day has obviously paid his dues, having been in the “woodshed” honing his vocal stylings over decades with impressive experience among such greats as Keter Betts, The Blackbyrds, James Carter, Carlene Ray, The Fisk University Choir, Billy Cox, Dorothy Donegan, Frank Foster, Dennis Irwin, Clark Terry, Jon Faddis, Phyllis Hyman, Lonnie Liston Smith, Noel Pointer, Harold Ousley, Eddie Chamblee, Ray Blue, Richard Wyands, Jesse Harris, Steve Ture, Leon Parker Jr., Chris Woods, Stefon Harris, Ernie Hayes, Paul Ramsey, Dr. Billy Taylor, Valerie Ponomerov, E.J. Strickland, Leon Thomas, Mike Longo, Jim McNealy, Eddie Henderson, Wynard Harper, Lionel Hampton, Mercer Ellington, Doc Cheatham, Oliver Vanessen, Billy Kaye, Nobel Jolly, the Lance Haywood Singers, James Weidman, Dr. Lonnie Smith, and many others. An earlier R&B recording includes Art Porter, Jr., T.K. Blue, Nick Colionne, Lawrence Hanks, and Terry Morrisett.

Day’s latest CD All Things in Time boasts an all-star ensemble. He appears at the historic Lenox Lounge Zebra Room in a special jazz salute to Dr. Martin Luther King January 15 and 16, 2010 in New York City led by Day with his Sextet.