Jazz Articles about Kenny Davern

Beginnings Part 2 with Kenny Davern, Nat Adderley, Annie Ross and Junior Mance

by Monk Rowe
November 29, 2022

Kenny Davern: No One But Kenny

by George Kanzler
March 16, 2007

The album title could stand as a fitting epitaph for clarinetist Kenny Davern, who died of a heart attack in December, 2006 at seventy-one. For no one else played jazz quite like Davern, whose affection for old trad jazz tunes belied a quirky sense of time as singular as Thelonious Monk's and a cavalier attitude toward such traditions as chord changes, bar lines and conventional pitch. Like Sonny Rollins, another jazz musician fond of old tunes, Davern was a master ...

The Kenny Davern Quartet: In Concert at the Outpost Performance Space, Albuquerque, 2004

by Florence Wetzel
December 7, 2005

Now in his 70s, Kenny Davern is a modern master of the clarinet, and his playing is an example of the effortlessness that comes only from decades of effort. This release finds him in the good company of guitarist James Chirillo, bassist Greg Cohen, and drummer Tony DeNicola on eight classic songs that radiate the pure, toe-tapping pleasure of jazz. In the liner notes Davern is quoted as saying that he was initially attracted to the clarinet ...

Kenny Davern and Joe Temperley: Live at the Floating Jazz Festival

by C. Michael Bailey
October 14, 2002

A Rollicking Blowing Session on the High Seas...

The musicians comprising this band, save possibly for Joe Temperley, are all associated with a traditional mainstream group of musicians typically showing up on the Arbors, Nagel Heyer, Chiaroscuro, and Concord Labels. They include, in addition to these present, Ruby Braff, Howard Alden, Randy Moss, Randy Sandke, Mark Shane, Ken Peplowski, etc. They are all expert practitioners of jazz, a bit right of center, but able to play what is asked of ...

Kenny Davern & Joe Temperley: Live at the Floating Jazz Festival

by Dave Nathan
October 5, 2002

Although these veteran performers at the 18th Floating Jazz Festival had been around for quite, they had never played together as a group. There was also a bit of concern with having a baritone sax and clarinet on the front line. Not unexpectedly with these highly skilled artists, their concerns were unjustified. Joe Temperley, who is the first call to "play" Harry Carney when a tribute to Duke Ellington is being put together, and Kenny Davern, whose resume reads like ...

Kenny Davern, Ken Peplowski: The Jazz KENNection

by AAJ Staff
January 1, 2002

Nine action-packed cuts, and even a little musical trickery are the order of the day for The Jazz KENNection. The trickery occurs, well, let’s just say song titles can be deceiving! Ken and Kenny have put together a rousing collection of tunes from “Georgia On My Mind” to Ellington’s “Creole Love Call.” There is no really slow tune on this album, and it really plays to the improvisation abilities of both Ken and Kenny. The rhythm section is comprised of ...

Kenny Davern & The Eddie Condon All Stars: Kenny Davern: A Night with Eddie Condon

by Mike Neely
July 1, 2001

Kenny Davern: A Night with Eddie Condon presents a live performance that really sounds like a live performance, and that’s a rarity. The music is all around you like you’re listening from a table a few feet from the stage: you can hear the stage banter, the audience around you, and the cymbals tinging right above you. This disc was taken from a reel-to-reel recording of a 1971 concert in Syracuse, New York. The sound is surprisingly good, even the ...