Who Was Joe Kennedy Jr.?

Yesterday I posted on a new box set from Fresh Sound featuring the complete recordings of Ahmad Jamal's Three Strings between 1951 and 1955. In the post, I wrote that in the late 1940s Ahmad played in a Pittsburgh group called the Four Strings that never recorded. The Four Strings folded after Joe Kennedy Jr., the quartet's violinist, left and Ahmad moved to Chicago. So who was Joe Kennedy Jr.?

Bill Kirchner wrote me early this morning.

Marc, Joe Kennedy Jr. was a dear friend of mine. You might be interested in his Wiki entry: “Joe Kennedy Jr. (1923 – April 17, 2004) was an American jazz violinist and educator. Kennedy was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He performed and recorded with pianist Ahmad Jamal and was director of jazz studies at Virginia Tech from 1984 to 1995. Kennedy performed with Benny Carter, Toots Thielemans, Billy Taylor and the Modern Jazz Quartet.

“He also appeared at major international jazz festivals, including the North Sea Jazz Festival and Monterey Jazz Festival. In April 1989, my nonet performed a concert at Virginia Polytechnic in Blacksburg, Va., where Kennedy had been director of jazz studies for a decade. He was the nonet's guest soloist and played on our last five tunes.

“For an approximation of how the Four Strings sounded, put on “Listen to the Ahmad Jamal Quintet" (Argo, 1960), which was arranged by Kennedy and added him and guitarist Ray Crawford to the trio of Jamal, bassist Israel Crosby, and drummer Vernell Fournier. Here are some key Joe Kennedy Jr. records":

Here's Listen to the Ahmad Jamal Quintet (1960)...



Here's It's You or No One, with Kennedy and Toots Thielemans on guitar, harmonica, whistling and foot-tapping, from Accentuate the Positive (1962)...



Here's I Love You, from Strings by Candlelight (1962), featuring Joe Kennedy, Jr. (vln), Hank Jones (p), Kenny Burrell (g), Milt Hinton (b), Osie Johnson (d) plus strings, including Julius Held and Gene Orloff (vln)...



Here's the Billy Taylor Quartet's Where've You Been (1980)...



Here's On Green Dolphin Street, from Magnifique!, on the Black & Blue label (1980), featuring Kennedy (vln), Hank Jones (p), Major Holley (b) and Oliver Jackson (d)...



Here's John Lewis's Kansas City Breaks (1982)...