Julian Dash

{{Short description|American jazz musician}}

{{More citations needed|date=August 2021}}

St. Julian Bennett Dash (April 9, 1916 – February 25, 1974){{cite book|title=The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music|editor=Colin Larkin|publisher=Guinness Publishing|date=1992|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-939-0|page=632}} was an American swing music jazz tenor saxophonist born in Charleston, South Carolina, United States, probably better known for his work with Erskine Hawkins and Buck Clayton.{{cite book

| author = Carr, Ian

| author-link = Ian Carr

| author2 = Digby Fairweather

| author2-link = Digby Fairweather

| author3 = Brian Priestley

| author3-link = Brian Priestley

| title = Jazz: The Rough Guide

| publisher = The Rough Guides

| year = 1995

| pages = [https://archive.org/details/jazzroughguide00carr/page/154 154]

| isbn = 1-85828-137-7

| url-access = registration

| url = https://archive.org/details/jazzroughguide00carr/page/154

}}

Dash was a member of the Bama State Collegians, which later became the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra. He is recognised, with Hawkins and fellow sax player Bill Johnson, in composing the swing tune "Tuxedo Junction", which became an immense hit when recorded by other (mainly white) bands, notably that of Glenn Miller.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Dash recorded for the Sittin' in With label and later was on Vee-Jay Records with his sextets. His renditions of "Devil's Lament" and "Dance of the Mother Bird" on Sittin' In With and his "Zig Zag" on the Vee Jay label were hits in the black community.

Dash can be heard at his best in 1953 on two of the Buck Clayton Jam Sessions, in which extended versions of songs ("The Huckle-Buck" to 63 choruses) were recorded by Vanguard to exploit the newly developed length of LP records. All of the six sessions were later released by Columbia as thematic album LPs and by Lone Hill as CDs, also in complete versions by Mosaic. On 6 March 1972, Dash recorded prominently with fellow tenor saxist Buddy Tate as one of Jay McShann's All-Stars on seven titles of Kansas City-styled tunes.