TEACHING AMERICA

Jazz musician whose TV tunes made learning fun for children

Bob Dorough, a singer,pianistandcomposer who was well known for his jazz but even better known for Schoolhouse Rock!, an infectious series of song-filled cartoons that conveyed maths and grammar principles to young American viewers, died on Monday at his home in Mount Bethel, Pennsylvania. He was 94.

Dorough was a moderately successful jazz pianist and singer when an advertising man named David B Mccall approached him for help with an idea. Mccall had wondered why his son was able to memorise lyrics to rock songs but couldn’t learn the multiplication tables. Would catchy maths-related tunes be the answer? The original concept was to make a record and workbook, but when Dorough started producing zippy songs like Three Is a Magic Number and My Hero, Zero, the vision expanded into a series of animated shorts, which US broadcaster ABC began inserting into its Saturday morning lineup in 1973.

The series continued into the mid-1980s, with several revivals in subsequent decades, the subject matter growing to include civics, science and grammar, the area in which his work had perhaps the most impact. “Not to unduly shame the American education system,” People magazine said in 2016, “but chances are Bob Dorough has had more of an impact on grammar fluency than any other individual in the 20th century.”

Dorough was music director for the series and wrote and sang some of the most fondly remembered Schoolhouse Rock! songs. For the rest of his career, it was not uncommon for him to be playing a jazz set and have someone call for aschoolhouse Rock! tune.

“Just about every concert we did we would do some Schoolhouse Rock! because people enjoyed it,” Steve Berger, Dorough’s longtime guitarist, said. The songs, he noted, were deceptively intricate. “What you’ll notice is, each one of them is musically brilliant, is lyrically brilliant.” The key, Berger added, was Dorough’s respect for the audience. “He never wrote down to the kids. He always brought them up.”

Robert Lrod Dorough was born on 12 December 1923 in Cherry Hill, Arkansas, to Robert and Alma. Music was always an interest for young Robert – violin and piano were among the instruments he studied – but the idea of making a career of it really took hold when, as a clarinetist, he joined the school band in Plainview, Texas, where his family had moved.

“There was something about the ensemble, a lot of kids playing different horns, and it all fit like a glove when it was good. I said to my parents, I’m going to be a musician.”

First came military service, from 1943 to 1945; Dorough performed with and arranged for the Army Band. In 1949 he received a music degree at North Texas State Teachers College, then headed for New York, where he immersed himself in the jazz scene. His apartment became the site of a regular jam session. “You had to play early because of the neighbours,” he said in 1998. “They’d start knocking on the walls and floor at 10.”

The musicians, though, didn’t mind; the 10pm quitting time meant they could still drop in on the late-night jazz scene downtown.

Dorough built a CV that was nothing if not eclectic. In the early 1950s he was the travellingmusicdirectorfortheboxer Sugar Ray Robinson when Robinson tried a tap-dancing career. They were playing in France when Robinson decided to return to the ring in 1955, but the Mars Club in Paris offered Dorough a singing and playing engagement, and he stayed for six months.

He returned to New York and recorded his first album, Devil May Care, released in 1956. He moved to the West Coast for several years and was playing in a quintet at a Hollywood piano bar when he met Miles Davis, who later asked him to write him a Christmas song. The result, in 1962, was Blue Xmas (To Whom It May Concern), a wry, somewhat cynical ditty sung by Dorough.

Another quirky collaboration was I’m Hip, a tonguein-cheek portrait of someone who is decidedly not hip, written with his fellow singerpianist-composer Dave Frishberg. It became a signature song for Blossom Dearie.

Dorough also helped produce, arranged for, played on or contributed vocals to albums by an array of artists that included Hoagy Carmichael, the Fugs, Spanky and Our Gang, and Art Garfunkel. He even acted occasionally; he appeared in an episode of western drama Have Gun – Will Travel in 1959.

By the time he was recruited for Schoolhouse Rock! he was well connected in the music world, and so able to bring a high-end assortment of talent to that project. Dearie sang Figure Eight and Unpack Your Adjectives. Frishberg wrote one of the series’ most delightful songs, I’m Just a Bill, about the legislative process.

Dorough is survived by wife Sally, brother Gregory, daughter Aralee and a grandson. His first marriage, to Jacqueline Wright, ended in divorce in 1953. He married Ruth Corine Meinert in 1960; she died in 1986.

Dorough performed constantly throughout his career and played a gig just a few weeks ago. New York Times 2018. Distributed by NYT Syndication Service.