Kenny Dorham

[Joe]

It doesn't get more hip than this:

 

[sidewinder]

Not to forget these two Uptown gems -

[Brad]

Terrific article. Una Más is my favorite and I have quite a few of his albums. The Blues in Bebop compilation issued by Savoy is also pretty darn good. 

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

jammin w/ b!

 

[mjzee]

Dr. Claude Donkke really needs to be recognized for his contributions to jazz.

[Peter Friedman]

Where to begin? I very much like all, or almost all the recordings with Kenny Dorham as leader or sideman.

Many of my favorites such as the Cafe Bohemia session, Quiet Kenny, Blue Spring, and the Joe Henderson albums have already been mentioned.

Here are some that may have been overlooked, but with some fine playing by Kenny.

Herb Geller - Fire in the West

Benny Golson - The Modern Touch

Barney Wilen - Barney

Meet Oliver Nelson

Clifford Jordan - Starting Time

Dave Bailey Sextet - bash

Milt Jackson - Invitation 

Rocky Boyd - West 42nd St.

Cedar Walton - Trio, Quartet, Quintet

Barry Harris - Bulls-Eye

[medjuck]

Was he sometimes called "Kinney"?  I thought this was one of my usual false memories  but then I noticed that his real name is Mckinlay. 

Edited September 16, 2018 by medjuck

[BillF]

Yes, I first knew him as Kinny Dorham. I think that's how it was spelled.Anyway, it's how Art Blakey announced him on the Cafe Bohemia recording.

[Claude Schlouch]

Don't forget the John Mehegan - Casual Affair album with a very fine Kenny Dorham.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

On 9/15/2018 at 11:50 PM, bluesoul said:

https://www.austinchronicle.com/music/2018-09-14/trumpet-colossus-kenny-dorham-towers-alongside-the-jazz-gods/

"avant-garde pianist Steve Kuhn"? Is there another side of Steve Kuhn that I didn't know about?

[Larry Kart]

28 minutes ago, Kevin Bresnahan said:

"avant-garde pianist Steve Kuhn"? Is there another side of Steve Kuhn that I didn't know about?

I heard Kuhn in Chicago with the original Coltrane quartet (with Steve Davis and Pete LaRoca), and at that time he was about as avant-garde as Paul Bley was. Later on he pulled in his horns a fair bit, albeit in a natural  (for him) evolutionary manner.

[Rooster_Ties]

1 hour ago, Kevin Bresnahan said:

"avant-garde pianist Steve Kuhn"? Is there another side of Steve Kuhn that I didn't know about?

Decided to check out some more (earlier) Steve Kuhn just now, and discovered these 2 somewhat avant tracks from 1968 (Bonus: both piano trio only!).  It really gets going about midway through (and quite nicely!)...

 

Edited September 17, 2018 by Rooster_Ties

[mikeweil]

Nice article in the Austin Chronicle:

https://www.austinchronicle.com/music/2018-09-14/trumpet-colossus-kenny-dorham-towers-alongside-the-jazz-gods/

[Gheorghe]

54 minutes ago, mikeweil said:

Nice article in the Austin Chronicle:

https://www.austinchronicle.com/music/2018-09-14/trumpet-colossus-kenny-dorham-towers-alongside-the-jazz-gods/

Very interesting to read. I knew about his great musicianship and love his recordings, but didn´t know about his personal life. He will always remain one of my favourites. All the albums he made and all the albums were he was a sideman are among my favourite records.

[Joe]

While it's far from a great record, something about this June 1962 session -- first issued as LP #1 of the HIPGNOSIS set, then on its own in Japan, then as a bonus session tacked onto the domestic reissue of VERTIGO -- has always stuck with me. The vibe of it is rather 50s Jackie, but, of course, here he's still working out the consequences of his decisions to go more outside on LET FREEDOM RING (March 1962, but not released until almost a year later). The re's something comfortable about the music; I'll credit the presence of the Clark-Warren-Higgins rhythm section. But there's also a tension, too.

IMO, some of that tension is a byproduct of KD's own tightrope walk between bop orthodoxy and the more expressionistic approach he started exploring as early as the 2 HORNS / 2 RHYTHM date with Ernie Henry. Maybe his chops were starting to go, as many have observed, but I'd like to think most of the hallmarks of his early 60s approach were the result of a deliberate choice on his part to further explore the possibilities of both his instrument -- a la Don Cherry -- and a more purely melodic and rhythmic approach to solo construction.

Case in point: the variations he spins on the Warren-composed head throughout his solo here. In some ways, his entire solo is simply a recapitulation of that initial statement, with subtle alterations of timbre, inflection, cadence and register. I would never claim this as KD's "Impressions", but there's something about his working over of motifs here that recalls Trane and Rollins. And I love that moment at just after the 3-minute mark where the shape of the descending phrase he plays recalls -- for me anyway -- someone sadly shaking their head at the what can't or won't be resolved. Anyway, it's a solo I find fascinating from a "generative constraint" point of view.

 

[Dan Gould]

I love KD but I am incapable of listening in the ways that Joe does.  

[JSngry]

11 hours ago, Joe said:

And I love that moment at just after the 3-minute mark where the shape of the descending phrase he plays recalls -- for me anyway -- someone sadly shaking their head at the what can't or won't be resolved.

 

Is it just me, or does it sound like he starts hearing "Pent-Up House" and then goes about working his way out of an exact quote? If that's what really was going on (and we'll never know for sure, about this or  any other such seemingly "out of nowhere" moments, hell maybe KD himself wouldn't have remembered it, so quickly did it come and go), but yeah, it sure sounds like he was being thoughtful one way and then all of a sudden this other thing pops up and he's like, ok, let me deal with this so I can get back to my original plan. He could have flubbed it entirely, or he could have just bitten the hook and let it go on, he only had like, what, 16 more bars to play by the time it would have been over? Half a chorus.  But he did neither, he considered the moment, processed the moment with honesty, and didn't get thrown off by the surprise, all in real time and with the tape rolling. That's an improviser!

[Joe]

13 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Is it just me, or does it sound like he starts hearing "Pent-Up House" and then goes about working his way out of an exact quote? If that's what really was going on (and we'll never know for sure, about this or  any other such seemingly "out of nowhere" moments, hell maybe KD himself wouldn't have remembered it, so quickly did it come and go), but yeah, it sure sounds like he was being thoughtful one way and then all of a sudden this other thing pops up and he's like, ok, let me deal with this so I can get back to my original plan. He could have flubbed it entirely, or he could have just bitten the hook and let it go on, he only had like, what, 16 more bars to play by the time it would have been over? Half a chorus.  But he did neither, he considered the moment, processed the moment with honesty, and didn't get thrown off by the surprise, all in real time and with the tape rolling. That's an improviser!

As the tune's title says, a dilemma!

[mikeweil]

Thanks to all your comments and KD's playing - Vertigo will become one of the very few McLean CDs in my collection.

[bertrand]

I am sorry to be nitpicky, but Marilyn's Dilemma was composed by Billy Higgins.

The Butch Warren piece is The Way I Feel. Blue Note kept crediting it to John Patton, but I was able to figure out just before Vertigo came out on US CD that it was actually written by my friend Butch. I am happy to have gotten his composer credit back, and in fact I heard him play it a couple of times!

It was not John Patton's fault, someone at Blue Note dropped the ball.

Bertrand.

[Joe]

2 hours ago, bertrand said:

I am sorry to be nitpicky, but Marilyn's Dilemma was composed by Billy Higgins.

The Butch Warren piece is The Way I Feel. Blue Note kept crediting it to John Patton, but I was able to figure out just before Vertigo came out on US CD that it was actually written by my friend Butch. I am happy to have gotten his composer credit back, and in fact I heard him play it a couple of times!

It was not John Patton's fault, someone at Blue Note dropped the ball.

Bertrand.

It's not nitpicky when you're correct! Thanks for untangling that.

[Teasing the Korean]

My favorite is Afro Cuban, especially with the 10" album cover art. 

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

thats awesome bro, you did the right thing- other people in jazz industry should of done what u done

[Gheorghe]

9 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

My favorite is Afro Cuban, especially with the 10" album cover art. 

Yes, that´s a great album.

This, together with the Bohemia 1956 live album are my favourites, and Una Mas from the later period.

[Joe]

Another excellent KD sideman appearance that often gets overlooked. Maybe his finest work with the Roach band. (BTW, that's George Coleman on this track, not Hank.)