Born in Arkansas and raised in Texas, Dorough immediately fell in love with music upon joining the Plainview Texas High School Band. He served three years in a Special Services Army Band Unit, gaining much professional experience as arranger, clarinetist, saxophonist, pianist, and entertainer (1943-45). After earning a Bachelor Of Music degree at the University of North Texas (1949), he made a beeline for New York City where he took classes at Columbia University and immersed himself in the volatile jazz scene then taking place known as the BeBop revolution. In 1971 he received a commission to “set the multiplication tables to music.” This led to a small industry, being the beginning of ABC-TV’s Schoolhouse Rock, Saturday morning cartoons that entertained and instructed unsuspecting children during the years (1973-1985). The impact of this media exposure was unpredictably immense. The show came back for another five years in the 90’s and is now enjoying its 30th anniversary with a DVD edition of the entire, five-subject series, for which Dorough worked as the Musical Director. Now residing in Pennsylvania, Dorough has received the Pennsylvania Governor’s Artist of the Year Award and in May 1998, Dorough was inducted into the Arkansas Jazz hall of fame.
