Thursday, September 5, 2013

Tom Kennedy - Just Play

No rehearsals - no written arrangements .... just play!
We were like kids in the studio ..... (quote: Tom Kennedy)(source: liner notes Bill Milkowski)
Hans Koert

Whow   - What a great opener ….. Airegin, originally composed and recorded in 1954 by Sonny Rollins in Miles Davis early Prestige Quintet (1954) opens Tom Kennedy’s latest album Just Play, released a few months ago by Capri Records Ltd. ( 74122 ).  It is one of the nine standards performed by an all-star band, directed by featured bass player Tom Kennedy.

Tom Kennedy ( source: tomkennedymusic.com)


(photo courtesy:
Hans Koert)
Tom Kennedy – born in St. Louis, August 1960 – started to play the acoustic bass when he was nine years old. Ray Brown was my hero, Tom says in the liner notes and he learned a lot from his mentor Jerry Cherry, who was … a monster bass player coming out of Ray’s things and also Leroy Vinnegar’s walking bass thing. 
He had such a strong will and he was such a strong player that it really left its influence on me forever. As a teenager he discovered the electric bass and when he was eighteen years young he had accompanied dozens of great jazz icons, like Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Stitt, Stan Kenton, James Moody, Barney Kessel, Eddie Harris, George Russell, Nat Adderley, Peter Erskine and Freddie Hubbard, among others … Is there a better start for a professional career? (source: Wikipedia)

Tom Kennedy ( source: tomkennedymusic.com)

During the 1980s he moved to New York and debuted on record in Billy Williams’ Quartet, which featured his elder brother piano player Ray Kennedy.  Tom's latest album, Just Play, is in fact, dedicated to his brother, who is suffering from multiple sclerosis. I’ve dedicated this recording to my brother for so many reasons, Tom says, He has always been such an inspiration to me, as a phenomenal pianist, composer and arranger, and even more, through his incredible spirit of giving.
(photo courtesy:
Hans Koert)
Tom Kennedy selected some great musicians for his band …. What to think about Mike Stern and Lee Ritenour at the guitars or Tim Hagans on trumpet, to list some.  His mate in the rhythm section is Dave Weckl, which he met in the 1970s at a Stan Kenton music camp in Springfield, Missouri .. I remember when Dave and I first played together we just connected immediately ….. Tom learned that Dave lived in St. Louis too and from that time they often jammed together – in 1984 they were recorded for the first time together at the Bill Connors album Step it – the start of a series of albums they made together ………….
Tom Kennedy ( source: tomkennedymusic.com)

As told before, the album Just Play contains standards only, from Freddie Hubbard’s Ceora  and Brubeck's In Your Own Sweet Way up to Cedar Walton’s Bolivia and Elllington's In a Sentimental Mood.  It has to do with the idea Tom had for this recording ….. No written arrangements nor rehearsals, …. Just Play as the album is entitled …  And so it happened … All tracks were recorded in one day with most tunes captured on the first take …. It was like we were kids in the studio!
 As you may have learned from the top of this blog ..... I really liked Airegin, but also Bolivia and Cole Porter's  What Is This Thing Called Love which is played in a way seldom heard ….. No - I'won't tell youLet is surprise you.

MY JAZZ LINKS: Tom Kennedy
Hans Koert
keepswinging@live.nl 

Follow the Keep (it) Swinging blog at Facebook or Twitter (#keepitswinging) or ask its free monthly newsletter. 
  
Just Play .....no written arrangements nor rehearsals…. Just Play! as the album is entitled … And so it happened … all tracks were recorded in one day with most tunes captured on the first take …. It was like we were kids in the studio!  Let Tom Kennedy latest album surprise you.

 Retrospect
Keep Swinging (old) Oscar Aleman Choro Music Flexible Records Hit of the Week-Durium Friends of the Keep Swinging blog Keep Swinging Contributions

No comments:

Post a Comment