Dee Palmer

Last updated

Dee Palmer
Birth nameDavid Victor Palmer
Born (1937-07-02) 2 July 1937 (age 86)
Hendon, London, England
Genres
Occupation(s)
Instruments
  • Keyboards
  • clarinet
Years active1967–present
Labels Chrysalis
Website missdeepalmer.com OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Dee Palmer (formerly David Palmer; born 2 July 1937) [1] is an English composer, arranger, [2] and keyboardist best known for having been a member of the progressive rock group Jethro Tull from 1976 to 1980 (although she had worked with the band as an arranger since their inception in 1968). [3]

Contents

Early life and career

Palmer was born in Hendon, London. [1] She later studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music with Richard Rodney Bennett, winning the Eric Coates Prize [1] and The Boosey and Hawkes Prize and during her studentship taught clarinet to second study students. She was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in 1994. [4] [ dead link ]

Jethro Tull

Going about her early career as a jobbing arranger and conductor of recording sessions, Palmer recorded her first album project, Nicola , in 1967 with Bert Jansch. [1] She was then referred to Terry Ellis, then manager of the early Jethro Tull, which was making its first album at Sound Techniques Studio in Chelsea, London. At short notice, Palmer came up with arrangements for the horns and strings on the Mick Abrahams composition, "Move on Alone" from the This Was album. [1] This work and professional performance endeared her to the band [5] and she was soon to visit them again, with a string quartet arrangement to "A Christmas Song". [1] Palmer arranged string, brass, and woodwind parts for Jethro Tull songs in the late 1960s and early 1970s, before formally joining the group in 1976 and primarily playing electronic keyboard instruments. [1]

In 1980, leader Ian Anderson intended to release the album A with other musicians as a solo project, but was persuaded by his record label to release it instead under the Jethro Tull name. This resulted in every member of the group, including Palmer, leaving except guitarist Martin Barre and Anderson himself. Palmer formed a new group, Tallis, with former Jethro Tull pianist and organist John Evan. [1] The new group was not commercially successful, and Palmer returned to film scoring and sessions. [1]

Solo work

Beginning in the 1980s, Palmer produced several albums of orchestral arrangements of the music of various rock groups, including Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes, the Beatles and Queen. [6]

In 2017, Palmer announced the release of her first solo album, Through Darkened Glass, which was released in January 2018 and has the guest appearance of former band-mate Martin Barre. [7] [8] [9]

In August 2019, Palmer appeared, alongside Barre, at Fairport's Cropredy Convention. [10]

Personal life

In 1998, Palmer came out as transgender and intersex, changing her name to Dee. Palmer was born with genital ambiguity, assigned male at birth, and underwent several surgeries, the last in her late twenties. Palmer said her gender dysphoria had been a part of her life since she had been young, and that the dysphoria "started to reassert itself again" in the year following the death of her wife Maggie in 1995. [11] [12] [13]

Discography

Solo

With Jethro Tull

Providing orchestral arrangements
As a full-time member

Symphonic arrangements

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jethro Tull (band)</span> British rock band

Jethro Tull are a British progressive rock band formed in Blackpool, Lancashire, in 1967. Initially playing blues rock and jazz fusion, the band soon incorporated elements of English folk music, hard rock and classical music, forging a signature progressive rock sound. The group's lead vocalist, bandleader, founder, principal composer and only constant member is Ian Anderson, who also plays flute and acoustic guitar. The group has featured a succession of musicians throughout the decades, including significant contributors such as guitarists Mick Abrahams and Martin Barre ; bassists Glenn Cornick, Jeffrey Hammond, John Glascock, Dave Pegg, Jonathan Noyce and David Goodier; drummers Clive Bunker, Barrie "Barriemore" Barlow and Doane Perry; and keyboardists John Evan, Dee Palmer, Peter-John Vettese, Andrew Giddings and John O'Hara.

<i>Thick as a Brick</i> 1972 studio album by Jethro Tull

Thick as a Brick is the fifth studio album by the British rock band Jethro Tull, released on 3 March 1972. The album contains one continuous piece of music, split over two sides of an LP record, and is intended as a parody of the concept album genre. The original packaging, designed as a 12-page newspaper, claims the album to be a musical adaptation of an epic poem by fictional eight-year-old genius Gerald Bostock, though the lyrics were actually written by the band's frontman, Ian Anderson.

<i>Heavy Horses</i> 1978 studio album by Jethro Tull

Heavy Horses is the eleventh studio album by British progressive rock band Jethro Tull, released on 10 April 1978.

<i>A</i> (Jethro Tull album) 1980 studio album by Jethro Tull

A is the 13th studio album by British rock band Jethro Tull. It was released on 29 August 1980 in the UK and 1 September of the same year in the United States.

<i>Too Old to Rock n Roll: Too Young to Die!</i> 1976 studio album by Jethro Tull

Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die! is the ninth studio album released by British band Jethro Tull, recorded in December 1975 and released in 1976. It is the first album to include bassist John Glascock who also contributes with backing vocals. Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die! is the last Jethro Tull concept album, which follows the story of Ray Lomas, an aging rocker who finds fame with the changes of musical trends. It was Jethro Tull's only album of the 1970s not to achieve Gold certification.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ian Anderson</span> Scottish musician, leader of Jethro Tull

Ian Scott Anderson is a British musician best known for his work as the singer, flautist, acoustic guitarist, primary songwriter, and sole continuous member of the rock band Jethro Tull. He is a multi-instrumentalist who also plays harmonica, keyboards, bass guitar, bouzouki, balalaika, saxophone and a variety of whistles. His solo work began with Walk into Light in 1983; since then he has released another five albums, including the sequel to the 1972 Jethro Tull album Thick as a Brick, titled TaaB 2: Whatever Happened to Gerald Bostock? (2012).

<i>This Was</i> 1968 studio album by Jethro Tull

This Was is the debut studio album by the British rock band Jethro Tull, released in October 1968. Recorded at a cost of £1200, it is the only Jethro Tull album with guitarist Mick Abrahams, who was a major influence for the sound and music style of the band's first songs. When the album was released the band was performing regularly at the Marquee Club in London, where other successful British groups, such as the Rolling Stones and the Who, had started their careers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Pegg</span> English bass guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and record producer (born 1947)

Dave Pegg is an English multi-instrumentalist and record producer, primarily a bass guitarist. He is the longest-serving member of the British folk rock band Fairport Convention and has been bassist with a number of folk and rock groups including the Ian Campbell Folk Group and Jethro Tull.

<i>Minstrel in the Gallery</i> 1975 studio album by Jethro Tull

Minstrel in the Gallery is the eighth studio album by British rock band Jethro Tull, released in September 1975. The album sees the band going in a different direction from their previous work War Child (1974), returning to a blend of electric and acoustic songs, in a manner closer to their early 1970s albums such as Benefit (1970), Aqualung (1971) and Thick as a Brick (1972). Making use of a newly constructed mobile recording studio commissioned and constructed specifically for the band, the album was the first Jethro Tull album to be recorded outside of the UK, being recorded in tax exile in Monte Carlo, Monaco.

<i>Stormwatch</i> (album) 1979 studio album by Jethro Tull

Stormwatch is the twelfth studio album by progressive rock band Jethro Tull, released in September 1979. The album is often considered the last in a trio of folk rock albums released by the band at the end of the 1970s, alongside Songs from the Wood (1977) and Heavy Horses (1978). The album's themes deal mostly with the environment, climate and seaside living, and were heavily inspired by the Isle of Skye in Scotland, where frontman Ian Anderson had recently purchased property.

<i>War Child</i> (album) 1974 studio album by Jethro Tull

War Child is the seventh studio album by Jethro Tull, released in October 1974. It was released almost a year and a half after the release of A Passion Play. The turmoil over criticism of the previous album surrounded the production of War Child, which obliged the band to do press conferences and explain their plans for the future.

<i>Benefit</i> (album) 1970 studio album by Jethro Tull

Benefit is the third studio album by the British rock band Jethro Tull, released in April 1970. It was the first Tull album to include pianist and organist John Evan – though he was not yet considered a permanent member of the group – and the last to include bass guitarist Glenn Cornick, who was fired from the band upon completion of touring for the album. It was recorded at Morgan Studios, the same studio where the band recorded its previous album Stand Up; however, they experimented with more advanced recording techniques.

<i>Songs from the Wood</i> 1977 studio album by Jethro Tull

Songs from the Wood is the tenth studio album by British progressive rock band Jethro Tull, released on 11 February 1977 by Chrysalis Records. The album is considered to be the first of three folk rock albums released by the band at the end of the 1970s, followed by Heavy Horses (1978) and Stormwatch (1979).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Barre</span> British guitarist

Martin Lancelot Barre is an English guitarist best known for his longtime role as lead guitarist of British rock band Jethro Tull, with whom he recorded and toured from 1968 until the band's initial dissolution in 2011. Barre played on all of Jethro Tull's studio albums from their 1969 album Stand Up to their 2003 album The Jethro Tull Christmas Album. In the early 1990s he began a solo career, and he has recorded several albums as well as touring with his own live band.

<i>Rock Island</i> (Jethro Tull album) 1989 studio album by Jethro Tull

Rock Island is the 17th studio album by the British rock group Jethro Tull, released in 1989. The album continued the hard rock direction the band took on the previous effort, Crest of a Knave (1987). The line-up now included Ian Anderson, Martin Barre, Dave Pegg and drummer Doane Perry in his first full recording with the band, although he had already been a member of Jethro Tull since 1984. Without a permanent keyboard player, the role was shared by Fairport Convention's Maartin Allcock and former Tull member Peter Vettese.

<i>A Classic Case</i> 1985 studio album by London Symphony Orchestra, Jethro Tull

A Classic Case (1985) is an album by Jethro Tull, playing with the London Symphony Orchestra, released in 1985. The music was arranged and conducted by Dee Palmer, who had collaborated with the band from 1968 and had been a full band member from 1976 to 1980. The album features band members Ian Anderson, Martin Barre, Dave Pegg and Peter-John Vettese.

<i>The Best of Jethro Tull – The Anniversary Collection</i> 1993 greatest hits album by Jethro Tull

The Best of Jethro Tull – The Anniversary Collection is a greatest hits album by Jethro Tull, released in 1993. It includes some of the band's biggest hits from 1968 to 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sweet Dream (Jethro Tull song)</span> 1969 single by Jethro Tull

"Sweet Dream" is a song recorded by the English rock band Jethro Tull on 31 August 1969, at Morgan Studios, London. It was their second straight UK Top Ten single, reaching number 7 in the UK singles chart. The b-side was a non-album track, "17", recorded on 11 September 1969, also at Morgan. It later appeared as a bonus track on remastered versions of Stand Up. "Sweet Dream" has appeared on many Tull compilation albums, while "17" has been rarely seen. In the UK, the single was the first release on Chrysalis Records.

"Heavy Horses" is a song written by Ian Anderson and performed by his band Jethro Tull. The song was released on the 1978 album of the same name. Written as a tribute to horses, the song features folk rock elements that rebelled against the musical trends of the period.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Dee Palmer Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & More". AllMusic . Retrieved 18 April 2024.
  2. Nollen, Scott Allen (2002). Jethro Tull: A History of the Band, 1968–2001. McFarland. pp. 185–. ISBN   978-0-7864-1101-6 . Retrieved 27 April 2012.
  3. Buckley, Peter (1 November 2003). The Rough Guide to Rock. Rough Guides. pp. 551–. ISBN   978-1-84353-105-0 . Retrieved 27 April 2012.
  4. "Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music (FRAM)". Royal Academy of Music. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
  5. Eder, Bruce. "David Palmer". VH1. Archived from the original on 31 March 2011. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
  6. Thompson, Dave (1 November 2004). Turn It On Again: Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins & Genesis. Hal Leonard Corporation. pp. 260–. ISBN   9780879308100 . Retrieved 14 May 2012.
  7. "Through Darkened Glass, by Dee Palmer". Missdeepalmer.bandcamp.com. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
  8. "Dee Palmer - Through Darkened Glass". Discogs.com. 23 January 2018. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
  9. Through Darkened Glass - Dee Palmer - Behind The Scenes on YouTube
  10. Martin Barre Band: "Life is a Long Song" @ Fairport's Cropredy Convention; August 10, 2019 on YouTube
  11. "Dee Palmer Interview with David Rees". Official Jethro Tull website. 29 June 2004. Archived from the original on 30 March 2012. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
  12. Out. Here Publishing. December 2004. pp. 113–. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
  13. Wright, Jeb (October 2004). "Dee Palmer Interview". Classic Rock Revisited. Archived from the original on 4 February 2005. Retrieved 14 May 2012.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)