Dee Palmer (born
David Palmer, 2 July 1937, London
) is a
English arranger and keyboardist best known for having been a member
of the rock group Jethro Tull. Palmer is a
transsexual woman who was known as David Palmer
for many years, including her stint with Jethro Tull. She is very
open about her transsexuality and plans on releasing a solo album
in the future.
Early career
Palmer learned to play clarinet during a stint in the
Royal Horse Guards cavalry regiment to
which she was sent.
There, she studied at Kneller Hall
, the Royal Military School of Music.
Palmer
later studied music at the Royal Military
School of Music
and at the Royal Academy of Music
, majoring in composition and winning the Eric Coates
Prize.
Jethro Tull and other works
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.
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. This work and professional
performance endeared her to the band and she was soon to visit them
again, with a string quartet arrangement to "A Christmas Song".
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. In 1980, leader
Ian
Anderson intended to release the album
A with other musicians as a solo
project (under the name 'Ian Anderson') 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. The new group was not
commercially successful, and Palmer returned to film scoring and
sessions. 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.
Male-to-female transition
In 2003, Palmer's first name was changed to Dee and early in 2004,
she announced having undergone
sex reassignment surgery as well as
having completed a full
gender transition to become a
woman. She said that prior to that, she had held the secret for
about 60 years but had been married to a woman and had not
transitioned for practical reasons. During these years, she was
usually clad in decorative and gentlemanly attire, and smoked a
"
Sherlock Holmes" style pipe. When
Palmer's wife died, she came to terms with being a
transsexual woman and started her transition. Ian
Anderson was one of the people from Jethro Tull to fully accept
her, saying "I have known for the past two years of David Palmer’s
intention to undergo gender-changing procedures and, like many
other people who have known David for three decades as a bearded,
pipe-smoking man’s man, I found it difficult to understand at
first. But I fully support his decision to undertake a new life as
a woman. To the many fans of Jethro Tull, I can only offer that
they should accept Dee Palmer for her new persona and hope that
they enjoy her musical activities in the future".
Jethro Tull Discography with Palmer
Providing orchestral arrangements:
As a full-time member:
Symphonic arrangements
References
- http://www.j-tull.com/news/deepalmer.cfm
External links
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search
