# Philly jazz legend, tenor saxophonist Larry McKenna dies at 86: Videos, Photos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2023/11/23/philly-jazz-legend-tenor-saxophonist-larry-mckenna-dies-at-86-videos-photos/
- Published: 2023-11-23T00:02:58+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Larry McKenna, a tenor saxophonist with a sublimely beautiful, velvet-cloaked 
sound who was a mainstay of the Philadelphia jazz scene as both a player and an 
educator for more than six decades, died on Sunday at KeystoneCare Hospice in Wyndmoor,
PA. He was 86.**

His death was confirmed by his son, Matthew, who said he had chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease and congestive heart failure.

A lifelong Philadelphian, McKenna was the very definition of a local legend. Prior
to moving into a Jenkintown apartment in his early 80s, McKenna had lived his entire
life in just two houses, three blocks apart in the city’s Olney neighborhood. From
this home base he performed and recorded with greats like Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett,
Woody Herman, Shirley Scott and Clark Terry, and mentored generations of Philly 
musicians.

“Larry was the beginning,” says pianist Orrin Evans, who studied music theory with
McKenna and later featured the saxophonist on his 2023 album _The Red Door_. “Not
only the beginning, he was a constant. I wouldn’t be doing any of this without people
like Larry McKenna.”

Well into the 21st century, McKenna remained a living link to an earlier era of 
jazz, his understated style bridging the decades from swing through bebop to modernists
like Wayne Shorter. His chief influences were legends like Stan Getz, Sonny Stitt,
Lester Young and Illinois Jacquet, and while his own approach called back to those
formative voices, he imbued his playing with such a soft-spoken directness that 
it maintained an emotional timelessness.

![Philly sax great Larry McKenna celebrates new album with strings](https://i0.wp.
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McKenna seemed to think in melody. His lines unfurled with an eloquent languor and
a delicacy of expression that felt feather-light but conveyed an enveloping warmth.
He possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of the American Songbook and communicated
with those familiar tunes in the way that most of us speak words from a dictionary.
I’ll never forget the unaccompanied rendition of “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You”
that he played at the funeral for his lifelong friend Jimmy Amadie, in 2013: barely
straying from the melody, he conveyed not just the heartbreak of Amadie’s loss but
also the myriad facets of any decades-long friendship.

“You never wanted to play a melody with Larry,” says trumpeter Terell Stafford. “
You would end up sounding like such an amateur trying to match his style, dignity
and eloquence. When he started to take a solo, forget about it — it was almost like
he wasn’t soloing, just writing a bunch of beautiful melodies that lasted chorus
after chorus after chorus.”

Despite the reverence in which he was held in Philadelphia, McKenna remained largely
a hometown secret for the bulk of his career. While music was his livelihood throughout
his life, he didn’t release his debut album as a leader, _My Shining Hour_, until
1997, when he was 60. He followed that with the springtime-themed _It Might As Well
Be Spring_ in 2000, but remained under-recorded until a spate of late-life output
beginning with _Profile_ in 2009.

On _From All Sides,_ he focused on original material for the first time, displaying
his skills as composer, arranger and songwriter (on several pieces co-written with
his friend, attorney and lyricist Melissa Gilstrap, and sung by Joanna Pascale).
At the urging of drummer Dan Monaghan, saxophonist and arranger Jack St. Clair, 
and bassist Joe Plowman, he released _World on a String_, a gorgeous collection 
of standards and originals with strings, in 2023 — shortly before he was forced 
to take an extended hiatus from playing following a stroke.

![Jazz Bridge Concert Featuring Larry McKenna | Cheltenham Center for the Arts](
https://i0.wp.com/www.cheltenhamarts.org/sites/default/files/JazzBridgeLarryMcKennaSS%
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Lawrence James McKenna was born on July 21, 1937, in Philadelphia, the youngest 
of four siblings. A sister, Patricia McKenna Bahner, of Powell, Ohio, survives him
along with his son, Matthew, and a number of nieces and nephews. He was predeceased
by another sister, Virginia McKenna Martin, and a brother, John Patrick McKenna.

After a brief dalliance with guitar as an adolescent, McKenna became enamored with
the saxophone when his older brother brought home one of Norman Granz’s Jazz at 
the Philharmonic albums featuring Flip Phillips and Illinois Jacquet, both of whom
became foundational influences. He signed up for sax lessons in high school, but
lacking an instrument, was assigned a clarinet instead.

“They needed bodies out on the football field,” McKenna recalled in 2023, “so they
put me in the band right away, even though I couldn’t play. I had a uniform before
I could even make a sound.”

Largely self-taught, McKenna credited listening to icons like Getz and Charlie Parker
for much of his education, though he studied briefly with a private teacher named
Tony Bennett (no relation to the iconic singer he’d later accompany) and at the 
Granoff School of Music, whose alumni included John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Dizzy
Gillespie and Pat Martino.

McKenna recalled frequenting Music City, the Center City music store that would 
host late-night sessions with noted musicians (famed as the site of Clifford Brown’s
final Philly performance before his death, though the date remains contentious).
He also attended workshops hosted by Camden DJ Tommy Roberts at North Philadelphia’s
Heritage House, where touring artists would perform with and critique aspiring musicians.
McKenna would nervously bring his tenor and test his mettle with the likes of Max
Roach, Clifford Brown, Harold Land and Chet Baker, alongside fellow hopefuls including
a young Lee Morgan.

That encounter, he later recalled, was one of the few instances in his early musical
life where McKenna had the opportunity to interact with his African-American peers.
In 2017, he and fellow Philly legend Bootsie Barnes celebrated their mutual 80th
birthdays with a series of concerts and the release of their stellar co-led album
_The More I See You_. In an interview at that time, they both marveled that despite
having been regulars on the Philly scene since their earliest days, they didn’t 
actually meet until the 1980s.

“It wasn’t a matter of choice,” McKenna said. “There were black neighborhoods and
white neighborhoods, there was a white union and a black union, and you fell into
wherever you were.”

During the late ‘50s, McKenna roomed for a time with Amadie, who was visiting New
York City one day when he followed the sound of a big band into an upstairs room.
He discovered clarinetist Woody Herman’s band in the midst of a combination rehearsal
and audition. Fortuitously, the Herd was in need of both a pianist and a tenor saxophonist,
so Amadie raced back to Philly and urged McKenna to return with him the following
day. Upon hearing the saxophonist’s audition, pianist Nat Pierce asked if he was
any relation to the pianist Dave McKenna. Larry said no, to which Pierce replied,“
Oh, I guess all McKennas play good.”

“I thought, ‘I might have a chance of getting this job,’” McKenna continued. “It
turned out that Jimmy and I both got the gig, and that Sunday we wound up going 
on the road.”

![](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/f961ba4/2147483647/strip/true/crop/
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McKenna spent the next six months touring with Herman and recorded one album with
the bandleader, 1960’s _The New Swingin’ Herman Herd_. (His face appears, blurred
in extreme close-up, on the cover.) That series of one-nighters soured the young
saxophonist on the idea of spending his life on the road, and with the exception
of a brief, unsuccessful sojourn to the west coast, he spent the remainder of his
career almost exclusively in the Philadelphia area.

He worked as a journeyman saxophonist for the next few decades, playing in wedding
bands, in nightclub and big band gigs, and accompanying touring acts at now-defunct
venues like the Latin Casino and Valley Forge Music Fair. In parallel he began his
career as an educator, eventually teaching at Temple University, the University 
of the Arts, West Chester University, Widener University and the Community College
of Philadelphia. He was also one of the invaluable mentors who taught by example
on the stages of Chris’ Jazz Café and the storied jam sessions at Ortlieb’s Jazzhaus,
along with such legends as Shirley Scott, Bootsie Barnes, Sid Simmons and Mickey
Roker.

“I only took a couple of lessons with Larry, but right away it was like a massive
light bulb went off,” recalls saxophonist Victor North. “I was having trouble relating
to the old standards, and he helped put them into their original context. Suddenly
the songs started coming alive to me. Generations of players have benefited from
his knowledge and support. The warm spot under his wing is a very fertile learning
ground.”

Faced with similar testimonials from countless younger players, McKenna routinely
shrugged off the praise. “Larry always thought I was joking when I said he was my
most influential teacher,” North says. “He would say, ‘Yeah right, because of those
two lessons.’ Which is typical of his humility. He underestimated his effect on 
people.”

McKenna’s mild manner and humility were certainly reflected in his playing, but 
the embracing beauty, wit and compassion he was able to achieve revealed hidden 
depths. “He was soft-spoken, but when you got to know him he was brilliant and hilarious,”
attests Monaghan, a student, collaborator and colleague of McKenna’s for more than
25 years.

“He was such a multi-dimensional guy for somebody who appeared so nonchalant and
easygoing,” Monaghan adds. “You could easily say the same things about his playing.
It was pretty and totally accessible, but the harder you looked, the more you realized
the genius of it.”

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