Kenny Dorham

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Kenny Dorham (1954)

Kenny Dorham , McKinley Howard Dorham (born August 30, 1924 in Fairfield , Texas , † December 5, 1972 in New York City , New York ) was an American jazz trumpeter , singer and composer .

Live and act

Dorham was one of the most active bebop trumpeters. He has played with the Dizzy Gillespies and Billy Eckstines ensembles , Kenny Clarke's Be Bop Boys , the Lionel Hamptons and Mercer Ellingtons orchestras , the Charlie Parker Quintet and the original Jazz Messengers ( Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers ). He also accompanied Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins and replaced Clifford Brown in the Max Roach Quintet. During this time, a session in 1958 with Cecil Taylor and John Coltrane - two musicians who preferred a rather different style to Dorham - became particularly popular . In addition to his role as an accompanying musician, he also led his own groups such as the Jazz Prophets (named in analogy to Art Blakey Jazz Messengers). The Jazz Prophets recorded the Blue Note live album 'Round About Midnight at the Cafe Bohemia' in 1956 . The Arrival was created in 1960 for the small label Jaro with Tommy Flanagan and Charles Davis .

In 1963 Dorham took the 26-year-old tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson into his group, which later recorded the album Una Mas (the group also played with the young Tony Williams ). The friendship between the two musicians led to numerous other albums, such as Henderson's debut album Page One (1963), Our Thing and In 'n' Out . Dorham played regularly in the 1960s for Blue Note and Prestige Records , as a leader and companion for Hendersons, Jackie McLeans , Cedar Waltons , Andrew Hills ( Point of Departure ), Milt Jacksons and others. a.

During the last years of his life, Dorham suffered from a kidney disease from which he died.

He composed the jazz standard Blue Bossa , which was released on Joe Henderson's album Page One .

Rolling Stone magazine picked his 1959 album Quiet Kenny at number 95 on its The 100 Best Jazz Albums list .

Voices of his colleagues

The jazz pianist Horace Silver, Dorham's fellow musician with the Jazz Messengers and on the Afro-Cuban album , wrote in his autobiography: “Kenny Dorham and Hank Mobley are two of the most underrated musicians in jazz. They were both giants. "

Miles Davis calls Kenny Dorham “my old friend” in his autobiography and mentions him several times: “Kenny was one hell of a trumpeter with a fantastic style. I liked the sound and the phrasing. And he was really creative and imaginative, an artist on his horn. Kenny never got the attention he deserved. "

Discography (selection)

Band leader

  • Kenny Dorham Quintet (debut 1953; 1954)
  • Afro-Cuban (Blue Note 1955; 1957)
  • Quiet Kenny (New Jazz, 1959; 1960)
  • Una Mas (Blue Note 1963; 1964)

Accompanist

with Lou Donaldson
  • Quartet / Quintet / Sextet (Blue Note, 1954; 1957)
with Horace Silver
  • Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers (Blue Note 1954/55; 1956)
with Art Blakey
  • The Jazz Messengers at the Cafe Bohemia Volume 1 (1955)
  • The Jazz Messengers at the Cafe Bohemia Volume 2 (1955)
with Hank Mobley
  • Mobley's 2nd Message (Blue Note, 1956; 1957)
  • Curtain Call (Blue Note, 1957; 1984)

Lexical entry

Web links

Commons : Kenny Dorham  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rolling Stone: The 100 Best Jazz Albums . Retrieved November 16, 2016.
  2. ↑ Horace Silver: Let's Get to the Nitty Gritty. The Autobiography of Horace Silver , University of California Press 2007, p. 88.
  3. ^ Miles Davis: Die Autobiografie , Heyne, Munich 2010, p. 289.
personal data
SURNAME Dorham, Kenny
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dorham, McKinley Howard (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz trumpeter, singer, and composer
DATE OF BIRTH August 30, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Fairfield , Texas
DATE OF DEATH 5th December 1972
Place of death New York City , New York