Dick Dickinson

Dick Dickinson

Dick Dickinson (January 2, 1928 – December 1, 2008)

Growing up in southern Indiana, Dick Dickinson went to Indiana University to study medicine but after a semester of mediocre grades, he changed to music. He also spent some time at Florida State University in 1950 where a friend had a record of Charlie Parker playing “Scrapple from the Apple”.

Listening to the music, Dickinson was hooked. Returning to IU, he focused on the drums but left for Indianapolis a few credits shy of an undergraduate degree. His roommate was bassist Max Hartstein and they often joined trombonist David Baker performing at gigs around campus.  

When he moved to Indianapolis, Dick began playing at the jazz clubs on Indiana Avenue.  Established drummer Benny Barth was a mentor. He frequented the jam sessions at the Hampton household and was known to play with the Montgomery brothers, J.J. Johnson, Bill Penick and Willis Kirk. 

Along the way, Dick moved to NY and California taking jobs outside of music which led to mental health issues and treatments and eventually a move to Central State in Indianapolis. In 1964, Dickinson gained his release from the hospital. He returned to IU, completing the few credits necessary to finish his undergraduate degree, and began working toward a master’s degree in anthropology. While at Bloomington, Dickinson became a disc jockey for WFIU, a precursor to his future career as a disc jockey for WIAN and WFYI in the ’80s in Indianapolis.

For more than two decades of Wednesday nights at the Chatterbox Jazz Club, drummer Dick Dickinson gave young jazz players a chance to learn their craft under a sure and swinging hand.  Dickinson built the bandstand soon after he started drumming at the Chatterbox in 1986, using industrial-grade maroon carpeting he hijacked from a Pizza Hut.