Similar Artists:
World's Greatest Jazz Band,
Bob Wilber,
Soprano Summit,
Bud Freeman,
Jimmie Noone,
Jimmy McPartland,
Steve Lacy,
Preservation Hall Jazz Band,
Michel Legrand,
Al Hirt
Influenced By:
Followers:
Performed Songs By:
Mitchell Parish,
Ira Gershwin,
Duke Ellington,
Andy Razaf,
Irving Mills,
James P. Johnson,
George Gershwin
Worked With:
- Born: January 07, 1935, Huntington, NY
- Died: December 12, 2006, Sandia Park, NM
- Active: '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, 2000s
- Genres: Jazz
- Instrument: Sax (Soprano), Clarinet
- Representative Albums: "Breezin' Along," "Kenny Davern and Dick Wellstood," "John and Joe"
- Representative Songs: "Please Don't Talk About Me Wh," "Bernie's Tune," "Orignial Dixieland One Step"
Biography
Once described in the 1990s in The New York Times as "the finest clarinetist playing today," that high praise wasn't far off the mark, as it applied to Kenny Davern in the autumn of his life, at the peak of his powers. Call him a jazz purist, even a snob, but Davern believed in playing standards, and that he did. Tunes by George Gershwin, Eubie Blake, Fats Waller, Irving Berlin; what are sometimes referred to as Great American Songbook tunes. He was often praised for the clarity and pureness of his tone, and often played outdoor festival gigs without amplification.Davern was born in Huntington, on New York's Long Island, on January 7, 1935. He lived with his grandparents in Queens, NY after his own parents split up, and shuffled through a maze of foster homes in Brooklyn and Queens in his youth. He began playing clarinet when he was 11, via the radio. He heard Pee Wee Russell playing "Memphis Blues" with Mugsy Spanier's Ragtimers, and right there, he had a revelation. He knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life playing traditional and blues-based jazz.
One big break was a phone call from trumpeter Harry "Red" Allen, who he accompanied locally on gigs around Queens while still in high school. He began playing clarinet and switched to saxophone for a time in high school, but switched back to clarinet before auditioning for pianist Ralph Flanagan's big band in the early 1950s. Davern recalled he got the clarinet playing part in Flanagan's band by bluffing his way in, saying he had another gig and the sooner he could audition, the better. He got the slot in Flanagan's band and played with the bandleader in 1953 and 1954.
While still a teen, Davern made his recording debut with Jack Teagarden, and four years later, recorded his first album under his own name, "In The Gloryland," for the Elektra Records label. Davern's discography is extensive and includes many albums for the Concord, Chiaroscure and Arbors labels.
Like any other focused musician, Davern devoted a lot of time to what he called his apprenticeship period, when he worked as a sideman to other bandleaders and recorded little under his own name. He collaborated on stage and in the recording studio with trombonist Teagarden, trumpeters Harry "Red" Allen and Buck Clayton, and drummer Jo Jones. After he hit 40, he began having thoughts about leading his own group, but by that point, he'd been playing professionally for more than two decades.
Davern always considered himself fortunate to have played with many of the pre-bebop jazz stylists in clubs in Manhattan in the 1940s.
Davern moved to the New Jersey Shore town of Manasquan from New York City in 1965, and he blamed the rise of rock 'n' roll for diminished incomes suffered by many of his friends who played traditional jazz.
Davern began to forge his own path and his own career with his own recordings, leading his own ensembles in the late 1970s. For much of the 1980s and part of the 1990s, he spent upwards of 230 nights a year on the road, and it wasn't until the mid-1990s that he curtailed his travel schedule significantly, playing only a number of select festivals each year. His notable recordings include anything he recorded for the Florida-based Arbors Records label in the 1980s and 1990s and into the new millennium.
"I like to play music that makes me feel good," Davern said in an interview.
"I like to listen to it when I play it, and most of that music was played by people who happened to be born around the turn of the century. The lyrics may be corny, but the tunes are not. And the tunes will survive."
Davern passed away at his home in Sandia Park, New Mexico on Dec. 14, 2006, after having a heart attack. He was 71. ~ Richard J. Skelly, All Music Guide
