Jazz Articles about Kenny Rankin

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Kenny Rankin: From the Heart

by R.J. DeLuke
June 9, 2009

Kenny Rankin died of lung cancer on June 7th, 2009. This interview was conducted in July 2002. He sings with a fluid ease, whether it's a standard like “The Very Thought of You," the Beatles “Blackbird," a Latin-flavored “Berimbau," or his own “In the Name of Love." His soft voice caresses the most delicate phrases and gallops at fast tempos. But always, there is the twist of a phrase, taking a line somewhere unexpected, but inspired; a ...

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Kenny Rankin: A Song for You

by Dave Nathan
August 1, 2002

Veteran vocalist Kenny Rankin, in my opinion, has been variously misclassified, misassigned in terms of where he belongs as a performer for far too long. The knee jerk reaction to his material, on record and in concert, is that he was more a soft rock singer than a singer/songwriter, with occasional performance references to entries from the Great American Songbook. But even a cursory look at the play list of many of his albums doesn't support that assessment. Even those ...

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Kenny Rankin: Here in My Heart

by Dave Hughes
December 1, 1997

It seems like every jazz artist (and even some pseudo-jazz artists) is destined to record at least one Brasilian music album during their career. Here's singer/songwriter Kenny Rankin's entry into this well-trodden field.

Everything about this disc looks like it should be great. There's a remarkable cast of players from both Americas. From Brasil, we have producer Oscar Castro-Neves, Luis Bonfa, Teo Lima, Gilson Peranzzetta, Ricardo Silveira, and many more. From the U.S., there's Don Grusin, Brian Bromberg, Michael Brecker, ...