The Jazz Project Big Band

The Jazz Project Big Band: Thanks for the Memories: The Music of Ken Downing

by Jack Bowers
September 10, 2006

As the San Diego-based Jazz Project Big Band has chosen to devote an entire album to the music of Ken Downing, one might reasonably ask who Ken Downing is. (I know I did.) The short answer is that Downing, who died of cancer in 1983 at age 55, was an Oklahoman, born and educated in Tulsa, whose life was devoted to music in general and big band jazz in particular. A tenor saxophonist, he organized, directed and performed with the ...