I regret to announce the death of Dawson Miller one of the founding fathers of samba in the UK who has died aged 66. He was also one of the 12 drummers who created the London School of Samba on 31st January 1984.

Born in 1950, Harry Dawson Miller, both his parents were from Ireland. His father’s father came from co. Antrim and his mother’s family came from co. Cork. Thus, he considered himself to be Irish as well, despite the fact that he was born in a hospital in Paddington. He joked to me that he considered the room where he was born “to have been a little bit of Ireland for one day”.

It was in his house at 16 Travers Road, Finsbury Park, sometime in early 1984 that the first bateria rehearsal of the LSS was held. He had played with the first Mestre de Bateria of the LSS, Bosco de Oliveira in the band Working Week. They had a famous hit single called “Venceremos – We Will Win” – a single dedicated to the Chilean singer Víctor Jara – who had been murdered by the Pinochet regime. Bosco and Dawson play on the the single, and appeared with the group on Top of the Pops when it charted. Other early members of the LSS played in Working Week – notably another founder member Neville Murray and two other drummers who were there in 1984 at the first gig in Covent Garden – Kim Burton and Roy Dodds.

He also played with Robin Jones before the LSS was formed and another group led by one of the founder members Dave Bitelli called Onward Internationals.

I first came across Dawson when I heard the single “A View from Her Room” by Weekend in 1982. it has a little bit of samba in it and it was real turning point for me and the first time I remember thinking “I like this”. In 2008, when I met him for the first time in his flat, I took round my copy of the single and showed it to him and said “my journey to see you began here in 1982”. He was touched by this and because of this record, l always felt a special connection with him.

The band Working Week came from Weekend, both were closely linked.

Bosco brought him to Waterloo one Sunday night and introduced him to me, and I went round to see him several times in his little flat crammed with drums in Princess Road in Camden between 2008 and 2014.

He was always very warm and friendly and keen to talk about the early history of samba in the UK and his key role in it. He would always ask about the LSS and how the school was doing.

I did several interviews with him and recorded much of what he said about how the LSS had first emerged.

When Bosco introduced him to me at WAC he said “this is Dawson, he can tell you how certain rhythms and arrangements in samba can also be traced back also to north African tribes”.

I was to find out that the one thing that he was very interested in talking about was how the Arabic influences on samba had not been fully appreciated. Not just samba, but music generally. When I last saw him l asked him about this and first thing he said was “without the Arabs there would have been no rock and roll!”. He pointed out that it was Richard the Lionheart – who as a result of waging the Crusades – had first bought the guitar back to Europe. The rest as you say, is history.

He talked in great detail about an obvious point – that Islam and Judaism had lived side-by-side for 800 years in what we call today Spain and Portugal.

Dawson married an Algerian woman and gone to live in Oran for many years and found that it was a city where Jewish and Muslim musicians once played together, like they had did on the Iberian Peninsula before they had been driven out from 1492 onwards.

He pointed out that there were some instruments in samba that were Berber in origin: the bendir (caixa), others had a more specifc Arabic root – namely the Al duff (tamborim, and of course it’s “cousin” the panderio – now the national instrument of Brazil). He had an old bendir in his flat and showed how this Morrocan frame drum had evolved into the caixa and demonstrated some of it’s rhythms.

Then they was the surdo, which he claimed had its origins in Tunisia, Libya. As I was leaving his flat one day, I noticed that he had decorated his landing and hallway with pictures of drummers. On his stairs, he suddenly pointed at a photograph on his and said “look – those drummers in Tunisia are playing a surdo!”. I looked closely at the picture which seemed to be a very old black and white picture, and sure it looked like a surdo. He added that the tan-tan, was now the darbuka.
Dawson, of course, stressed that the Arabic influence was just one part, and many, if not most, of the rhythms and arrangements came from west and central Africa. He felt very strongly that the Arabic influence had been, as he put it “cut out” of the history of the music, and this could be traced back to events that happened on the Iberian Peninsula from 1492 onwards.

Dawson was there on Sunday 1st April 1984 when the LSS played its first gig and at many of its early gigs. He last came to an LSS gig with his panderio when we played outside on the street by Made in Brasil in Camden when l was leading the bateria in 2014. This would be the last time l saw him.
He told me he played in the 3 Mustaphas 3 with one of my teenage heroes – Lu Edmonds, former guitarist with punk rock band The Damned. Formed before the LSS in 1982, the group – which included Kim Burton – was active until the 1990s. Dawson said Lu had been a great inspiration to Dawson and said he regarded him “as an uncle”.

In a statement published on Piranha Arts, a statement from the group was published:

“We mourn the passing of Salah Dawson Miller a.k.a. Isfa’ani Mustapha – founding member for all things percussion in World Music’s royal family from Szegerely, 3 Mustaphas 3. When they were touring Germany in the Nineteeneighties on Isfa’anis rhythms and beats with Piranha President to come, Borkowsky as their minder, the seed was ultimately planted that still keeps us going. Salah went on to many further projects, two prominent later ones being his trio with Justin Adams and Juldeh Camerah and Les Triaboliques. As Sabah Habas Mustapha puts it best possible:

“Remembering Salah Dawson Miller who will never escape being Isfa’ani Mustapha to me; unique percussionist and human. Genial, wise, sometimes irascible but often with reason. Goodnight gentle spirit” In deep sympathy with the Mustapha family, Piranha Arts second that emotion.”

Dawson was a font of knowledge of all types of world music and a superb and internationally respected percussionist. A warm and very friendly person, he will be greatly missed by many people.

Another founder member of the LSS, German Santana said:
“What sad news of Dawson passing away. I remember him as a kind and friendly human being, a great musician and founder member of the LSS. I remember seeing him for the first time the night of the debut in society of the LSS at Jenako Arts more than 30 years ago. Thinking of that, a few of those who participated in that memorable event are gone; Pato Fuentes, Alan Hayman, Mauricio Abello and now Dawson Miller. My sincere and felt condolences to his family, friends and fellow musicians who had the privilege of knowing and working with Dawson.

The news of his passing was passed on by Dave Bitelli who said:

Dawson sadly died last week after an illness that had diminished him day by day. My apologies if you’ve not been in the loop and consequently this comes as a clumsily delivered shock; likewise you may already know. Dawson’s funeral is planned for 12 o clock on Saturday 9th September at Golders Green Crematorium, West Chapel. Amel Tafsout is over from the USA and is active in arranging the ceremony with others, probably including Steve Rubie and Paul Clarvis.To my mind, Dawson is an unsung hero of the UK music scene, a pioneer in opening peoples’ minds to other artistic aesthetics. I owe him much, we go back a long way and it is with deep regret I shall not be able to attend the funeral as I shall be in Poland and am unable to cancel without impacting on others adversely. As is said, I wish you all long life,

David