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Henry Darragh
About Henry Darragh
Henry Darragh is a talented multi-instrumentalist and composer currently working in Houston Texas while doing graduate studies at Moores School of Music. In addition to being a first-rate trombonist, Darragh can also play jazz piano, sing, compose, arrange, lead, educate, and inspire. To hear his debut CD Tell Her For Me one might think of him as an up and coming jazz songwriter who swings and croons vocals, but that would only be the latest chapter in his story.
Born and raised in Pasadena Texas, Darragh was surrounded by music from a young age, and felt he might eventually become a classical trombonist. But jazz was always lurking in the background. Fortunately he had instructors as early as 7th grade who were into jazz, and turned him onto classic recordings, and although he loved it then, jazz remained a kind of secret language until college. According to Darragh, "my family always had a piano in the house, which I used to teach myself bad habits."
This love of music was a feeling which continued through undergraduate studies at San Jacinto College where he took Theory I with percussionist Ray Dillard, and later private lessons "not so much to learn percussion as to just hang out with Ray," a talented musician well versed in many genres including jazz, who now teaches at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto (Canada). Later at the University of Houston Darragh played with the U of H jazz ensemble, providing opportunities to play piano with guest clinicians such as Lou Soloff, Randy Brecker, and David Sanchez, as well as with Houston-based artists such as Joel Fulgham, David Craig, Erin Wright, Kelly Dean and others.
Darragh was then accepted into Stuart Ostrow's Musical Theater Lab at the U of H, where he worked with the Tony Award Winner Stuart Ostrow (Madame Butterfly, 1776, Pippin), and cites this experience working with both directors and writers as something that has really pushed him as a songwriter. He is continuing with graduate studies at Moores School of Music in Houston.
Darragh has worked professionally with artists such as Los Skarnales, TJ Funk, the Steve Lippia Big Band, Adela Dalto, DJ Sun's Solar Grooves, and Joe B's Rebel Crew, and is now appearing as a solo artist on piano and vocals either by himself, as a duet or with a small group, while staying very busy as a session artist, and on-call jazz performer.
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Henry Darragh: Too Much Monday
by C. Michael Bailey
My introduction to Houston Jazz came with the receipt of Jacqui Sutton's Billie & Dolly (Toy Blue Typewriter Productions, 2010). A few short months later, I received Henry Darragh's Tell Her for Me (Self Produced, 2011). When I compared the musical personnel for each of these recordings, a light came on in my pea brain alerting me to the fact that Houston may not be so big after all. There was quite the overlap in musicians between the two releases. ...
read moreHenry Darragh: Tell Her for Me
by C. Michael Bailey
Do we really need one more trombonist/singer from Texas? Well, seeing that the only one that comes to mind presently is Tea" Jack Teagarden, then, well, yes we do. Multi-instrumentalist Henry Darragh completely fits the musical bill. While Darragh looks more like a physics graduate student at UT-Austin, he is, actually, an accomplished composer/performer, who leads multiple combos in everything from Tejano-jazz to mainstream. Don't let his appearance scare you, Henry Darragh is not a statistician. On ...
read moreHenry Darragh: Tell Her For Me
by David Rickert
By any standard--no pun intended--"Everything Happens To Me" is a terrific song. It has clever lyrics and a catchy melody, and when both are put together each enhances the other. Henry Darragh's version on his debut, Tell Her For Me, is a reminder of this fact; no one writes songs this great anymore.
Darragh is a singer/songwriter with the same vulnerable tenderness in his voice as Chet Baker. He can earnestly croon songs of love gained, love longed for, and ...
read moreHenry Darragh: Tell Her For Me
by Bruce Lindsay
On Tell Her For Me, his first album, Texan Henry Darragh sets out of his stall as a fresh and original performer and writer. This is one of the most interesting and refreshing releases of 2009--a collection of standards and self-penned songs which is by turns funny, affecting and even educational. Darragh's fellow musicians provide sterling support and Darragh clearly has talent as a pianist and trombonist--he contributes a rough-edged and driving trombone solo to Early," for ...
read moreJazz Pianist/Trombonist/Vocalist/Composer Henry Darragh Releases Debut CD Tell Her for Me
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Michael Ricci
Henry Darragh's debut recording Tell Her For Me shows the maturity of a seasoned multi-instrumentalist who has traveled down many roads on his musical journey, from trombone sit-ins with popular Houston electronic artists (DJ Sun's collective Solar Grooves, Joe B's Rebel Crew, et al.), to his work with a Tejano Funk band (TJ Funk), the Broadway Show Jersey Boys, the Steve Lippia Big Band, Adela Dalto, and grinding out jazz gigs with many of the best musicians in Houston. But ...
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Primary Instrument
Piano
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Hey There
From: Too Much MondayBy Henry Darragh