# Kenny Burrell is among the handful of guitar greats who have forever changed the role of their instrument: Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2018/07/31/kenny-burrell-is-among-the-handful-of-guitar-greats-who-have-forever-changed-the-role-of-their-instrument-video/
- Published: 2018-07-31T00:04:43+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**31.07. – Happy Birthday !!! After 40 years as a jazz professional, appearing on
several hundred albums as leader and sideman, Kenny Burrell is among the handful
of guitar greats who have forever changed the role of their instrument.**

Staunch musical integrity and discriminate taste coupled with matchless technique
have made the guitarist nonpareil among his peers. “My goal is to play with good
tone, good phrasing and to swing,” says Burrell, “I strive for honesty in playing
what I feel.”

“Master instrumentalist and composer,” “virtuoso,” “historic figure of American 
guitar.” “Ellington’s favorite guitar player”—this is a typical sampling of the 
critical praise routinely bestowed on Burrell, who pioneered the guitar-led trio
with bass and drums in the late Fifties. Although he has since worked in countless
other formats, from big band to three guitars plus rhythm to solo, he has remained
constant in his quest to get the most out of a natural, low-volume, acoustic sound.“
My audience has developed so that they come to listen and are quiet,” he explains.“
Thus I can work in a limited volume range and explore all the subtleties that can
happen, which is my favorite part of the music.”

Aside from his performing and recording schedule, Kenny has been a teacher at the
University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) for many years. Included in his teaching
schedule is a special course that he developed on the music and life of Duke Ellington
called “Ellingtonia”. Started in 1978, it was the first regular college course on
Ellington taught in the United States. In addition he is also the founder and director
of the Jazz Studies Program at UCLA where he is a professor of music and ethnomusicology.
He is also a lecturer and director of workshops on guitar and Jazz studies, founder
and President Emeritus, of the Jazz Heritage Foundation, and all around crusader
for the recognition of jazz as a classical art form.

Kenny Burrell is also a prolific composer whose work is more and more in demand.
Kenny is composer of the 1998 Grammy Award winning song “Dear Ella”, performed by
Dee Dee Bridgewater. His compositions have been recorded by many other great artists
such as Ray Brown, Jimmy Smith, Grover Washington Jr., John Coltrane, June Christy,
Frank Wes and Stevie Ray Vaughn. More recently, he received a commission grant from
Meet the Composer, Inc. to write an original, extended composition for the Boys 
Choir of Harlem which premiered at New York’s Lincoln Center, and in 1997 was recorded
for Concord Records.

Kenny is a man who has garnered the respect of the entire jazz world. “He’s one 
of jazz’s most gracious gentlemen,” says pianist Mike Wofford, “an educator and 
spokesperson for the entire tradition of American Jazz, Kenny is truly a goodwill
ambassador for our music, and more importantly, a representative of the best in 
our society.”

Born in Detroit, Kenny Burrell was raised in a musical family. His mother, who sang
in the Second Baptist Church choir, also played the piano around the house. His 
father was fond of the banjo and the ukulele. “He was just the kind of guy who could
pick up string instruments and do something with ’em.” Kenny recalls, – “It kinda
rubbed off on us.”

Kenny, who credits Charlie Christian, Oscar Moore, and Django Reinhardt as influences,
as well as such blues men as T-Bone Walker and Muddy Waters, played on his first
major recording session in Detroit in 1951 with a Dizzy Gillespie combo that included
John Coltrane, Milt Jackson, and Percy Heath. Even though the young guitarist was
keeping heavy company, including that of such other up- and-coming Detroiters as
Tommy Flanagan, Yusef Lateef, Pepper Adams, and Elvin Jones, he remained in Detroit
to study at Wayne State University, from which he earned a B.A. in music composition
and theory in 1955. He also studied classical guitar with Joseph Fava during that
period and continues to employ finger-style and other techniques.

A six-month tour in 1955 with the Oscar Peterson Trio helped to set Burrell’s sight
on the Big Apple. The following year, he and Flanagan drove to New York City and
were promptly drafted into the major league of jazz. Burrell not only became the
city’s most in demand Jazz guitarist, recording with his own groups and with Coltrane,
Billie Holiday, Thad Jones, Kenny Dorham, Paul Chambers, Jimmy Smith, Gene Ammons–
and many others, but played on pop sessions with the likes of Tony Bennett, James
Brown and Lena Horn and worked in the pit bands of such Broadway shows as Bye Bye
Birdie and How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying.

In all, Burrell has recorded more than ninety albums as a leader. This body of work
has received much critical acclaim.

Since the mid-Sixties, the guitarist has been leading his own group plus working
in “All-Star” settings and has performed with college bands and orchestras. He has
also performed with professional orchestras such as the Detroit Symphony and the
Buffalo Philharmonic.

Though his combos vary in personnel, size and instrumentation, integrity and invention
have constantly guided his music. “My inspiration comes from the message Duke gave–
you are unique, be yourself, put out that thing that is you, then use your work 
ethic and produce great music.”

Kenny Burrell has been the recipient of many awards and has been voted “Best Guitarist”
numerous times by music fans and critics worldwide. Recently he received this honor
for the second time from the Jazz Times International Readers Poll.

His music and recordings have received much international recognition including 
the “Prix de Disc” from Switzerland. He has also received many academic honors including
a Doctorate of Human Letters, and the 1997 Ellington Fellowship awarded by Yale 
University. He was voted “favorite Jazz Musician” by listeners of KLON Jazz Station
in Los Angeles in 1996 and was inducted into the KLON Jazz Hall of Fame. He served
on the awards panel for the National Endowment for the Arts and was the National
Chairperson for guitars for the National Association of Jazz Educators. He has been
dubbed America’s “guitar laureate” by the Detroit Free Press.

![Картинки по запросу Kenny Burrell](https://i0.wp.com/images1.
laweekly.com/imager/u/original/7671421/kenny-burrell.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

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