Dave McKenna, a gifted pianist and solo artist, had a very long and successful career in jazz. Having started out in the 1940s, his talent and musical abilities propelled him for nearly 50 years. Known for quick speed at the piano and being able to cover what sounded like three or four different parts, he can be put into a category of his own.

Though most of his career was spend doing solo performances, it was his time working in bands with people like Woody Herman and Charlie Ventura that would be some of the most influential artists in his life. These experience would also make him one of the greatest keyboard accompanists of his time.

Bio:

David McKenna was born in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, and had piano lessons as a child, although he credited assiduous listening to the radio and records as more important in forming his style. As a teenager he played at local functions, and, by 17, was in the Boston-based group of Boots Mussulli. After his subsequent big band career and a spell of army service, he spent 13 years as a New York freelance, playing for the likes of Stan Getz, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims and Bobby Hackett. Among the singers he accompanied were Rosemary Clooney and Tony Bennett.

In 1967, after some years in New York, he settled on Cape Cod at South Yarmouth, working frequently in nearby Boston, but also in smaller out-of-the-way restaurants and bars on the Cape, where he could play long unaccompanied sets that displayed his encyclopaedic knowledge of popular songs.

To those who heard him, a particular joy was his penchant for linking the pieces he played by wordplay on their titles, so that Sweet and Lovely might be followed by Sugar, and then Sweet Sue or When My Sugar Walks Down the Street. Entire sets were built this way, as indeed were several of the solo albums he recorded for Concord in the 1980s and 1990s, such as Easy Street in which the majority of tunes commemorate roads, paths or streets associated with jazz.

McKenna’s exceptional solo technique was best described by Bob Doerschuk of Keyboard magazine, who said:

“McKenna plays like he has three hands… The bottom two fingers
of his left hand dance through bass lines, the top two fingers on
the right hand explore variations on the theme of the tune, both
thumbs and second fingers play chords in between and the middle
fingers jump in wherever they’re most needed.”

The dazzling speed of his fingers was at odds with his physical appearance. A large, thick-set man, he was memorably — and accurately — described by Doerschuk as looking like “an amiable but sleepy turtle”.

The late 1970s saw McKenna performing quite frequently in Britain, when he joined forces with the clarinetist and saxophonist Bob Wilber, who spent part of each year living and working there. At the Dean Street Pizza Express the two men played some memorable sessions, usually also featuring Wilber’s wife, the singer Pug Horton, and the Swedish vibes player Lars Erstrand.

Back in the US McKenna worked regularly at the Copley Plaza in Boston, or the Regattabar Jazz Club. At the latter he played numerous times with another long-term associate, the tenor saxophonist Scott Hamilton, and the two recorded an excellent memento of their association called Tenorshoes.

McKenna continued to play into the 1990s, but he was forced into retirement at the end of that decade by the effects of diabetes, and the onset of cancer. He is survived by his son, Steven.

Recommended Listening:

(1) Solo Piano (Released 1973)
(2) Easy Street (Released 1995)
(3) May 18, 1981 Private Solo Recordings (Released 2008)

Related Posts

1. A Closer Look At Two Great Musicians & Artists: An interview with jazz duo Tuck & Patti
2. A Closer Look At Jazz Saxophone Legend Paul Desmond
3. Jazz Bassist Matthew Garrison Releases Latest CD “ShapeShifter Live 2010 – Solo, Part 1″
4. Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra With Guest Artist Ernie Andrews At Spazio
5. Getting To Know Bill Evans: A jazz pianist of his time and ours too!