Music / Theatre & dance
Dennis Rowland
born 1948 · jazz singer, actor
Detroit-born jazz singer who worked as a singer and actor in the city before Count Basie hired him in 1977 as his band vocalist for seven years.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan
age 78- Detroit years
- 1948–1977
- Field
- Music, Theatre & dance
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Dennis Rowland grew up in Detroit in a household of jazz enthusiasts, and at five or six he heard Joe Williams singing with the Count Basie Orchestra, a voice that shaped his approach ever after. In the early 1970s he worked in Detroit as both a singer and an actor. His break came in 1977, when Count Basie hired him as the band's featured vocalist, the chair once held by his idols Joe Williams and Jimmy Rushing; he toured with Basie for the next seven years and shared stages with Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Tony Bennett. After Basie's death he built a solo career, recording three albums for Concord in the mid-1990s: Rhyme, Rhythm & Reason (1995), Get Here (1996) and Now Dig This! (1997), a vocal tribute to Miles Davis. He also acted on screen, playing Jimmy Baker in the film Real Gone Cat.
Highlights
- Worked as a singer and actor in Detroit in the early 1970s
- Count Basie Orchestra vocalist, 1977–1984
- Shared stages with Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Tony Bennett
- Concord albums including Now Dig This! (1997), a Miles Davis tribute