Kenny Davern

Kenny Davern
Kenny Davern on clarinet
Background information
Birth name	John Kenneth Davern
Born	(1935-01-07)January 7, 1935 Huntington, New York, U.S.
Died	December 12, 2006(2006-12-12) (aged 71) Sandia Park, New Mexico, U.S.
Genres	Dixieland, swing
Occupation	Musician
Instrument	Clarinet
Labels	Arbors, Chiaroscuro, Jazzology

John Kenneth Davern (January 7, 1935 – December 12, 2006) was an American jazz clarinetist.

Biography

He was born in Huntington, Long Island, to a family of mixed Jewish and Irish-Catholic ancestry. His mother's family originally came from Vienna, Austria, where his great-grandfather Alfred Roth had been a colonel in the Austro-Hungarian cavalry, the highest rank accessible to a Jew in the Habsburg Imperial army.

After hearing Pee Wee Russell the first time, he was convinced that he wanted to be a jazz musician, too; and at the age of 16 he joined the musician's union, first as a baritone saxophone player. In 1954 he joined Jack Teagarden's Band, and after only a few days with the band he made his first jazz recordings. Later on, he worked with bands led by Phil Napoleon and Pee Wee Erwin before joining the Dukes of Dixieland in 1962. The late 1960s found him freelancing with, among others, Red Allen, Ralph Sutton, Yank Lawson and his lifelong friend Dick Wellstood.

At this time, he had also taken up the soprano saxophone, and when a spontaneous coupling with fellow reedman Bob Wilber at Dick Gibson's Colorado Jazz Party turned out be a huge success, one of the most important jazz groups of the 1970s, Soprano Summit, was created. Co-led by Wilber and Davern, both switching between the clarinet and various saxophones, during the next five years Soprano Summit enjoyed a successful string of record dates and concerts. When the group disbanded in 1979, Davern devoted himself to solely playing clarinet, preferring trio formats with piano and drums. His collaboration with Bob Wilber was revived in 1991, the new group being called Summit Reunion. Leading his own quartets since the 1990s, Davern preferred the guitar to the piano in his rhythm section, employing guitarists Bucky Pizzarelli, Howard Alden and James Chirillo. He also made several appearances to the Colorado Springs Invitational Jazz Party and performed with numerous international jazz musicians.

In 1997, he was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame at Rutgers University, and in 2001 he received an honorary doctorate of music at Hamilton College, Clinton, New York. In addition to the jazz greats that inspired him, Kenny Davern indicated classical clarinetist David Weber, principal solo clarinetist with the New York City Ballet Orchestra, as his most important teacher.

Although playing mainly in traditional jazz and swing settings, his musical interests encompass a much broader range of styles. In 1978 he collaborated with avantgarde players Steve Lacy, Steve Swallow and Paul Motian on a free jazz-inspired album appropriately entitled Unexpected. In addition to his accomplishments in jazz, his ardour and knowledge of classical music was encyclopaedic, particularly of the work of conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler.

Especially after concentrating exclusively on playing the clarinet, Kenny Davern called his own an unmatched mastery of the instrument. A full, rounded tone, especially "woody" in the lower chalumeau register, combined with highly personal tone inflections and the ability to hit notes far above the conventional range of the clarinet, made his sound immediately recognizable. In the late 1980s, The New York Times hailed him as "the finest jazz clarinetist playing today".

Davern died of a heart attack at his Sandia Park, New Mexico home.

Discography

As featured artist

Title	Released	Note	Label
Dialogues	2006-05-08	w/ Ken Peplowski	Arbors
No One Else But Kenny	2006-11-21	Kenny Davern Trio	Sackville
In Concert at the Outpost Performance Space, Albuquerque 2004	2005-09-13	Kenny Davern Quartet	Arbors
At the Mill Hill Playhouse	2003-11-04	Kenny Davern Quartet	Arbors
The Kings of Jazz	2003-08-05	-	Arbors
Live at the Floating Jazz Festival	2002-01-22	w/ Joe Temperley	Chiaroscuro
The Jazz KENnection	2001-10-30	w/ Ken Peplowski	Arbors
A Night with Eddie Condon	2001-05-01	w/ Eddie Condon	Arbors
You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet	2001-01-01	-	Jazzology
Ralph Sutton and Kenny Davern	1998-01-01		Chiaroscuro
Smiles	1998-01-01		Arbors
Breezin' Along	1996-06-13	-	Arbors
Spanish Eyes	1995-11-05		Chiaroscuro
Never in a Million Years	1995-10-01	-	Challenge
Kenny Davern and the Rhythm Men	1995-06-15		Arbors
East Side, West Side	1994-06-24	-	Arbors
Soprano Summit	1994-01-01	w/ Bob Wilber	Chiaroscuro
My Inspiration	1991-09-11		MusicMasters
The Last Reunion	1998-05-14	-	Upbeat
Ralph Sutton and Kenny Davern	1998-01-01	w/ Ralph Sutton	Chiaroscuro
Summit Reunion	1989-01-01	w/ Bob Wilber	Charoscuro
One Hour Tonight	January 1988	Kenny Davern Quartet	Musical Heritage Society
I'll See You in My Dreams	1988-01-01		MusicMasters
This Old Gang of Ours	1985-12-10	-	Upbeat
Kenny Davern Big Three	1985-11-25		Jazzology
Kenny Davern and Dick Wellstood	1984-01-15	w/ Dick Wellstood	Challenge
Live Hot Jazz	1983-12-18	-	Statiras
Stretchin' Out	1983-12-01	-	Jazzology
The Very Thought of You	1983-01-01	-	Milton Keynes
El Rado Schuffle	1980-06-07	-	Kenneth
The Free-Swinging Trio in the Jazz Tradition	1979-12-02	-	Fat Cat Jazz
The Hot Three	1979-07-01	-	Monmouth
Unexpected	1978-05-30	w/ Steve Lacy, Steve Swallow, and Paul Motion	Kharma
John and Joe	1977-10-23	w/ Flip Phillips	Chiaroscuro
Live at The New School	1972-04-01	w/ Eddie Condon, and Gene Krupa	Chiaroscuro

As sideman

With Dick Wellstood

• Dick Wellstood and His All Star Orchestra (Chiaroscuro, 1981)

With George Shearing

• George Shearing in Dixieland (Concord, 1989)

With Roswell Rudd

• Blown Bone (Philips, 1979)

External links

• Allmusic biography
• Kenny Davern Interview NAMM Oral History Library (1985)