Artist: Dave McKenna
Genre(s):
Jazz
Discography:
A Handful of Stars
Year: 1993
Tracks: 16
Shadows 'N Dreams
Year: 1991
Tracks: 14
Live at Maybeck Recital Hall
Year:
Tracks: 11
An Intimate Evening
Year:
Tracks: 6
One of the top swing-based pianists of the past 25 years, Dave McKenna's hard-driving bass lines give momentum to uptempo pieces and his immense knowledge of superscript songs from the thirties has resulted in many rewarding albums of traditional merely clean music. Although talented from the begin, McKenna did not achieve that much recognition until he was already in his 40s. He joined the Musicians' Union when he was 15 and picked up early live playing with Boots Mussulli (1947), Charlie Ventura (1949) and Woody Herman's Orchestra (1950-51). After two years in the military, McKenna had a second erolia minutilla with Ventura (1953-54) and then worked with a kind of crown swing and Dixieland players including Gene Krupa, Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Eddie Condon, Bobby Hackett and Bob Wilber (in the late '70s) and was a soloist at pianoforte parallel bars in Massachusetts. McKenna had recorded for ABC-Paramount (1956), Epic (1958), Bethlehem (a two-piano date shared with Hall Overton in 1960) and Realm (1963) but in 1973 McKenna's talents finally began to be more fully attested. He light-emitting diode sets for Halycon, Shiah, Famous Door, Inner City (with singer Teddi King) and four for Chiaroscuro. And then in 1979 with No Bass Hit (a ternion engagement with Scott Hamilton and Jake Hanna), McKenna debuted with Concord, determination his base. He has made many roger Sessions for Concord ever since, some as a sideman or with small groups merely the c. H. Best ones being unaccompanied recitals. In the mid-'90s Dave McKenna is at the top of his champaign.
Centory Feat. Turbo B
