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Kenneth Earl "Kenny" Burrell (born July 31 1931) is an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 guitarist
Guitarist

A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may perform solo pieces or play with ensembles and bands of a wide variety of genres....
. His playing is grounded in bebop
Bebop

Bebop or bop is a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos and improvisation based on harmonic structure rather than melody. It was developed in the early and mid-1940s....
 and blues
Blues

Blues is a music genre based on the use of the blues chord progressions and the blue notes. Though several blues musical form s exist, the 12-bar blues chord progressions are the most frequently encountered....
; he has performed and recorded with a wide range of jazz musicians.

ell was born in Detroit, Michigan
Detroit, Michigan

Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Wayne County, Michigan. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwestern United States of the United States....
 to a musical family and began playing guitar at the age of 12. His influences as a guitar player include Charlie Christian
Charlie Christian

Charlie Christian was an United States swing music and bebop jazz guitarist.Christian was an important early performer on the electric guitar, and is cited as a key figure in the development of bebop....
, Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt

Jean-Baptiste "Django" Reinhardt was a Belgian Gypsy jazz guitarist.One of the first prominent European jazz musicians, Reinhardt remains one of the most renowned jazz guitarists due to his innovative and distinctive playing....
, and Wes Montgomery
Wes Montgomery

John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery was an United States jazz guitarist. He is generally considered one of the major jazz guitarists, emerging after such seminal figures as Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian and influencing countless others, including Pat Martino, George Benson, and Pat Metheny....
. While a student at Wayne State University
Wayne State University

Wayne State University is located in Detroit, Michigan, in the city's Midtown, Detroit#Midtown Cultural Center, Detroit and is a 4th tier national university comprised of 12 schools and colleges offering more than 350 major subject areas to 33,000 graduate and undergraduate students....
, he made his debut recording as a member of Dizzy Gillespie's
Dizzy Gillespie

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie [/g?'l?spi/] was an United States jazz trumpeter, bandleader, singer, and composer. He was born in Cheraw, South Carolina, the youngest of nine children....
 sextet in 1951.






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Kenneth Earl "Kenny" Burrell (born July 31 1931) is an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 guitarist
Guitarist

A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may perform solo pieces or play with ensembles and bands of a wide variety of genres....
. His playing is grounded in bebop
Bebop

Bebop or bop is a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos and improvisation based on harmonic structure rather than melody. It was developed in the early and mid-1940s....
 and blues
Blues

Blues is a music genre based on the use of the blues chord progressions and the blue notes. Though several blues musical form s exist, the 12-bar blues chord progressions are the most frequently encountered....
; he has performed and recorded with a wide range of jazz musicians.

Biography

Burrell was born in Detroit, Michigan
Detroit, Michigan

Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Wayne County, Michigan. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwestern United States of the United States....
 to a musical family and began playing guitar at the age of 12. His influences as a guitar player include Charlie Christian
Charlie Christian

Charlie Christian was an United States swing music and bebop jazz guitarist.Christian was an important early performer on the electric guitar, and is cited as a key figure in the development of bebop....
, Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt

Jean-Baptiste "Django" Reinhardt was a Belgian Gypsy jazz guitarist.One of the first prominent European jazz musicians, Reinhardt remains one of the most renowned jazz guitarists due to his innovative and distinctive playing....
, and Wes Montgomery
Wes Montgomery

John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery was an United States jazz guitarist. He is generally considered one of the major jazz guitarists, emerging after such seminal figures as Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian and influencing countless others, including Pat Martino, George Benson, and Pat Metheny....
. While a student at Wayne State University
Wayne State University

Wayne State University is located in Detroit, Michigan, in the city's Midtown, Detroit#Midtown Cultural Center, Detroit and is a 4th tier national university comprised of 12 schools and colleges offering more than 350 major subject areas to 33,000 graduate and undergraduate students....
, he made his debut recording as a member of Dizzy Gillespie's
Dizzy Gillespie

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie [/g?'l?spi/] was an United States jazz trumpeter, bandleader, singer, and composer. He was born in Cheraw, South Carolina, the youngest of nine children....
 sextet in 1951. He toured with Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson

Oscar Emmanuel Peterson, Order of Canada, National Order of Quebec, Order of Ontario was a Canada jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends, and was a member of jazz royalty....
 after graduating in 1955 and then moved to New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
 in 1956.

A consummate sideman
Sideman

A sideman is a professional musician who is hired to perform or record with a musical band of which he is not a regular member. Sidemen are generally required to be adaptable to many different music genre of music, and so able to fit smoothly into the group in which they are currently playing....
, Burrell recorded with a wide range of prominent musicians. He also led his own groups since 1951 and recorded many well received albums.

In the 1970s he began leading seminars about music, particularly Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader.Duke Ellington was recognized during his life as one of the most influential Jazz royalty, if not in all American music and he is of only four jazz musicians ever to have been featured on the cover of Time magazine ....
's. A highly popular performer, he has won several jazz polls in Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
 and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 as well as the United States.

He has recorded about 40 LPs, including Midnight Blue (1963), Blue Lights, Guitar Forms, Sunup To Sundown (1990), Soft Winds (1993), Then Along Came Kenny (1993), and Lotus Blossom (1995).

On Saturday, December 2 2006, Burrell recorded his 99th album, live at UCLA's Royce Hall. As of 2007, Burrell serves as Director of Jazz Studies at UCLA. In fact, one of Burrell's courses which he teaches is "Ellingtonia", examining the life and accomplishments of Duke Ellington. This program was the first university-level course in the country focusing on the artist.

Discography


As leader

  • Introducing Kenny Burrell (1956), Blue Note
    Blue Note Records

    Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards....
  • All Day Long (1957), Prestige
    Prestige Records

    Prestige Records was founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock . The record label name was initially New Jazz, but changed to Prestige Records the next year....
  • Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane
    Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane

    Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane is a 1958 album by jazz musicians Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane....
     (1958), Prestige
  • Blue Lights (1958), Blue Note
  • On View At The Five Spot Cafe (1959), Blue Note
  • Bluesy Burrell (1962), Moodsville
  • Midnight Blue (1963), Blue Note
  • Guitar Forms (1964), Verve
    Verve Records

    Verve Records is an United States Jazz record label now owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Norman Granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels: Norgran Records and Clef Records and material which had been licensed to Mercury Records previously....
  • Have Yourself a Soulful Little Christmas (1967), Cadet
    Cadet Records

    Cadet Records was started as Argo Records in 1955 in music as the jazz subsidiary of Chess Records. Argo changed its name in 1965 to Cadet to avoid confusion with the similarly named label in the UK....
  • God Bless the Child (1971), CTI
    CTI Records

    CTI Records was a jazz record label founded in 1967 in music by Creed Taylor, initially as a subsidiary of A&M Records....
  • ‘Round Midnight (1972), Fantasy
    Fantasy Records

    Fantasy Records is a United States based record label, which was founded by Max and Sol Weiss in 1949 in San Francisco, California. They had previously operated a record pressing plant called Circle Record Company before forming the Fantasy label....
  • Ellington Is Forever (1975-77), Fantasy
  • 12-15-78 (1999), 32 Jazz
  • Lucky So and So (2001), Concord Jazz

As sideman


See also

  • Organ trio
    Organ trio

    An organ trio, in a jazz context, is a group of three jazz musicians, typically consisting of a Hammond organ player, a drummer, and either a jazz guitarist or a saxophone player....
    , a type of small jazz ensemble in which Burrell often performed


External links