Happy Birthday to Kenny Dorham

McKinley Howard Dorham, aka Kenny Dorham
August 30, 1924 – December 5, 1972.
 

Trumpet Dude salutes one of the best today, Happy Birthday Kenny! Yes, Kenny Dorham was one of the best voices to ever travel the trajectories of a trumpet. While his playing voice was incredible, he never received the accolades he should have from the jazz establishment, always overshadowed by the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Lee Morgan, Clifford Brown and Fats Navarro. Perhaps this is simply because he didn’t have a flamboyant personality like the others. I can only speculate, but in fact, he was referred to as ‘quiet Kenny.’ Regardless, his playing has stood the test of time and is now considered some of the best and a must listen for any aspiring jazz trumpeter today. I myself had not heard of Kenny until trumpeter Dave Scott turned me on to him some years ago, asserting that Kenny was his favorite. To this day, I am utterly amazed and challenged by the music that Kenny composed in his improvisations.
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Musical Colorist – Johnny Coles

As artists we must take in as many ideas, colors, textures, and sounds as possible, all of which become our own palette to draw from when we create. This is especially true in Jazz, as it is a collaborative art form where we learn from each other.

Well, last night, having worked too late into the evening, I wasn’t in the mood for high note antics or the like. You might say I was feeling a bit mellow. Thumbing through some CD’s I hadn’t listened to in a while, I came across ‘Little Johnny C,’ by Johnny Coles. I had forgotten what an experience it is to listen to this cat play. Oh man, I mean his sound lights a fire deep into my spine. Warm but cool, with shades of purple, green and yellow. While Johnny Coles is not a household name in the jazz world, as trumpeters he is one player that you should be familiar with. Johnny grew up in Philadelphia and started playing the trumpet at age ten. He was mostly self-taught, with the extent of his formal music training being received at a vocational high school. He played in army bands during the war years and thereafter began to play in various R&B groups, including Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson’s group, which included John Coltrane. After this period, Johnny hooked up with James Moody and played with his group from 1956-1958. When he left Moody, he began an association with Gil Evans that lasted until 1964. During those years he played on several Evans productions, including several Evans-Davis collaborations, such as ‘Porgy and Bess’ and ‘Sketches of Spain’. Some have commented that his association with Evans deprived him his just dessert and caused him to be seen as merely a Miles Davis understudy. Regardless, Mr. Coles exploited the fullness of his trumpet’s qualities, as he was truly a capable musical colorist that understood how to use a color’s shades well. After separating with Evans, he toured with the Charles Mingus group for a period. There is a Charles Mingus DVD set entitled ‘Live in ’64,’ that contains live footage of the group’s performances in Europe. Johnny also played with Herbie Hancock during 1968-69. A great chart to hear his genius on is entitled, ‘The Prisoner’ on the Herbie Hancock album of the same name. During the remainder of his life, Johnny played with Ray Charles, Duke Ellington and Count Basie, among others. You can enjoy the warm sound of Johnny Coles on these fine productions.