Having released the Blue Note recording "Right on My Way Home" at age 74, followed by "Too Much Coffee Man", Bob Dorough again surfaced as an important member of the fraternity of witty American singer-song writers and pianists that include Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Mercer, Blossom Dearie, Harold Arlen, Mose Allison, Dave Frishberg, and Ben Sidran. A four page feature article in the December 1997 issue of Jazz Times quotes Dorough saying, "My job is to cheer people up, baby." But don't take him lightly. He was the only vocalist to record with Miles Davis, who included Dorough's "Nothing Like You" on the album "Sorcerer".
He co-wrote Mel Torme's hit "Comin' Home Baby". His originals "But For Now" and "Devil May Care" are classics from his early albums. Bob became involved with the famous "Schoolhouse Rock" animation series that debuted on ABC TV in 1973 and is still showing today. As musical director, composer, and performer, he devised innovative and entertaining methods of teaching maths, grammar, history, and science to several generations of American kids. In the meantime he says, "I just kept singin', playin', learnin', and entertaining my friends."

For the past twenty years Bob has mostly worked in a duo with bassist Bill Takas (who is featured on "Right On My Way Home"). Five of the tunes on that album were recorded in New York with Joe Lovano, Christian McBride, and Bill Hart. The drummer added to the duo tracks is Grady Tate. Each of these is among the greatest jazz players of our time.

Bob moved to New York in 1949. He supported himself during those formative years by playing piano at a Times Square tap dance school. Dorough was born on December 12, 1923 in Cherry Hill, Arkansas. In the mid-forties he was exposed to bebop while in the Army Air Corps. Upon his discharge, he enrolled at North Texas State Teachers' College (now UNT), America's first school with a jazz major curriculum. His fellow musicians were Herb Ellis, Jimmy Giuffre. Jazz Times says about Dorough, "On the long march to artistic freedom and cultural respectability, jazz has lost much of its sense of jubilation...anyone who can listen to Dorough's rollicking collection of tunes without cracking a smile should immediately book an appointment to be tested for Bell's palsy." Barney Kessell.
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