Ray Kennedy (pianist)

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Ray Kennedy 2001 at the Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia.

Raymond Huston "Ray" Kennedy Junior (born 1957 in Maplewood, Missouri , † May 28, 2015 in New York City ) was an American jazz pianist and arranger of mainstream jazz .

Live and act

Kennedy grew up in the suburbs of St. Louis , from the early 1980s he played with local musicians in St. Louis, u. a. with Billy Williams, with whom the first recordings were made in 1981. From 1993 he worked as a pianist and arranger with John Pizzarelli , a. a. heard on his albums PS Mr Cole (RCA, 1997) and Kisses in the Rain (Telarc, 1999), also with Harry Allen , Ruby Braff , Buddy DeFranco , Dick Hyman , Bucky Pizzarelli , Randy Sandke , The Four Freshmen and Dave Weckl . Under his own name, e.g. Sometimes as The Kennedy Brothers with his brother Tom Kennedy (double bass), he recorded a number of albums, including an Arthur Schwartz tribute album and in the 2000s several adaptations of classical compositions, most recently Classic in Jazz (2008). He died in May 2015 of complications from multiple sclerosis . In the field of jazz he was involved in 66 recording sessions between 1981 and 2008.

Discographic notes

  • The Kennedy Brothers: I'll Remember April (Maxjazz, 1997), with Tom Kennedy, Todd Strait
  • Ray Kennedy (Victoria, 1999), with John Pizzarelli, Bucky Pizzarelli, Ray Brown , Martin Pizzarelli , Jeff Hamilton
  • Dick Hyman / Ray Kennedy: What Is There to Say? (Victoria, 2003)
  • Mozart in Jazz (Swing Bros, 2005), with Tom Kennedy, Miles Vandiver
  • Plays the Music of Arthur Schwartz (Arbors, 2006), with Joe Cohn , Tom Kennedy, Miles Vandiver
  • Soft Winds (Swing Bros, 2007), with Tom Kennedy, Lewis Nash

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Obituary in JazzTimes
  2. ↑ Liner Notes from the album The Ray Kennedy Trio Plays the Music of Arthur Schwartz
  3. ↑ Selected from Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD . 6th edition. Penguin, London 2002, ISBN 0-14-051521-6 .
  4. ↑ Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online, accessed June 1, 2015)
personal data
SURNAME Kennedy, Ray
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kennedy, Raymond Huston Jr.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Maplewood, Missouri
DATE OF DEATH May 28, 2015
Place of death New York City