Kenny Kirkland's death
Dale L Koch
I just recently heard about it a couple days ago from listening to my
recordings of Jazz After Hours and haven't since been able to track down
any information. Please at least respond to the email address below in
addition to RMB.
Thanks,
Dan Koch
dk...@dwx.com
________________________________
"My mind functions perfectly on tangents skewed insane."
http://users.dwx.com/~dkoch
Helge Gundersen
<DALE...@prodigy.net> wrote:
> Could someone please inform me as to the details of Kenny Kirkland's death.
> I just recently heard about it a couple days ago from listening to my
> recordings of Jazz After Hours and haven't since been able to track down
> any information. Please at least respond to the email address below in
> addition to RMB.
There was a lot about him here a couple of weeks ago, and the details were
of such a nature that people may not want to go through them once more. If
your server has deleted those messages, and have access to the World Wide
Web, I suggest you go to http://dejanews.com/ and search for "Kenny
Kirkland", and all of the messages will come up.
-- Helge
DAnder9518
Jazz Track
Pianist Kenny Kirkland Dead At 43
11/15/98 , by Drew Wheeler
Kenny Kirkland, who gained fans and critical raves the world over from his
dazzling piano performances with such artists as Branford and Wynton Marsalis,
Kenny Garrett and Sting, was found dead in his Queens, New York apartment the
morning of Nov. 13. He was 43.
According to New York Police Dept. spokeswoman
Kenny Kirkland
Carmen Melendez, the 105th Precinct in Queens received a call at around 9:00 PM
Nov. 12 from neighbors reporting "a foul odor." Police gained entry to
Kirkland's apartment in Queens' Springfield Gardens section shortly after 2:00
AM on Nov. 13 and discovered his body. Police raised the possibility that his
death was drug-related, but as yet had no confirmation, pending the Medical
Examiner's determination. According to a report in the New York Daily News,
police found drug paraphernalia at the scene. Kirkland's friends and colleagues
were said to have been concerned with his reputed substance abuse and such
health problems as high blood pressure, that led to his hospitalization earlier
this year.
"He died quietly at home," said Kirkland's manager Marcia Mason. "And his
family finds solace in that and so do I. As far as musically, there wasn't
anybody like him. And as far as a human being, there wasn't anyone like him.
Anybody you could talk to who knew him would say the same thing."
"His music was everything," said Mason. "He was incredibly shy, he was
incredibly withdrawn--on the other hand, he'd light up the room if he walked
in. He was just a very odd person in this world. He definitely was an
unassuming type of person and he lived a very simple life. He had a very
close-knit family. That was his life, and his music was the most important
thing. There was no compromising that--and that made it difficult for him. He
didn't have an easy time of it, because as you know, the music industry is all
about compromise."
Jeff Levenson, VP of jazz for Columbia Records, recalled Kirkland as "a very
nice person. A guy who had this very self-effacing way around other musicians.
He was the last person to recognize how good and how big a talent he was."
Kirkland played recent sessions with Branford Marsalis and drummer Jeff "Tain"
Watts for their respective Columbia albums. The Marsalis and Watts releases,
due out next year, are likely to be among Kirkland's final recordings.
Branford Marsalis issued a statement that said: "Kenny Kirkland was a musical
genius, but more importantly, he was my friend. He had a certain quality about
him that made people want to love him. He was one of the kindest, most loving
men I know. Laughter came easily to him, and he made everyone around him want
to laugh too.
"There is a lot being said and written about his darker side and very little
about his important contributions to music. It is vital that those of us who
truly understand the impact he had on the art form speak in his behalf. Kenny's
legacy is that of a great musician and not merely someone who spent his life
fighting his demons. After all, we all have our demons and each of us has our
own special, often destructive, way of dealing with those demons. The tragedy
is that in the past year he had made the decision that he wanted to live.
Sadly, it was during this time that he slipped away from us.
"I love him dearly and I will miss him tremendously. Music has lost a great
thinker."
Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1955, Kenneth David Kirkland was only six when he
first sat down at a piano keyboard. After graduating Nazareth High School in
1973, Kirkland enrolled at the Manhattan School Of Music, where he studied
classical piano performance, classical theory and composition until 1976. His
first professional work came with Polish fusion violinist Michal Urbaniak,
touring throughout Europe with a his group in 1977 and recording the albums
Urbaniak and Daybreak. Coincidentally, Kirkland's next high-profile gig was
with another Eastern European jazz émigré, Miroslav Vitous. Kirkland is
featured on Vitous' ECM recordings First Meeting and Miroslav Vitous Group. In
his more than twenty-year career, Kirkland performed or recorded with such
artists as Dizzy Gillespie, Elvin Jones, John Scofield, Kenny Garrett, Carla
Bley, Michael Brecker, Stanley Jordan, Kevin Eubanks, Arturo Sandoval, Don
Alias, Tom Scott, Ernie Watts and Mark Whitfield.
In the early 1980s, Kirkland was on tour in Japan with trumpeter Terumasa Hino,
when he was said to have met Wynton Marsalis, which began their long
association. On Marsalis' self-titled debut album, Kirkland shared the piano
duties with one of his musical influences, Herbie Hancock, but was the sole
pianist on Marsalis' subsequent releases Think Of One, Hothouse Flowers and
Black Codes (From the Underground). After his association with Wynton Marsalis,
Kirkland joined Branford Marsalis' band. He is featured on the albums Royal
Garden Blues, Renaissance, Random Arrest, Crazy People Music, I Heard You Twice
The First Time and the eponymously-titled album from Marsalis' funk band
Buckshot Lefonque. When Branford Marsalis assumed the high-visibility role of
bandleader for NBC TV's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 1992, Kirkland became
the band's pianist. But his time on the Los Angeles-based television show ended
in 1995, and he returned to the East coast and session work. "It was a day
job," said Mason of his time on The Tonight Show, "When he played with
Branford, that was the important thing, and playing without Branford--it was
just a day job."
Throughout his career, Kirkland offered his talents to a variety of non-jazz
artists, from soul singers Ben E. King and Angela Bofill, to Senegalese star
Youssou N'Dour, to classic-rockers Stephen Stills and David Crosby. As opposed
to many piano "purists," Kirkland was not shy of electric keyboards and
synthesizers. (Although perhaps not for beginners--Mason recalls Kirkland
insisting that she purchase an acoustic piano for her son to learn the
instrument.) He also ran contrary to jazz orthodoxy when he left Wynton
Marsalis' acoustic traditional jazz combo to join Branford Marsalis
accompanying ex-Police pop star Sting. Kirkland appears on Sting albums Dream
Of The Blue Turtles, Bring On The Night, Soul Cages and Mercury Falling.
In 1991, he released his debut as a leader, Kenny Kirkland, on GRP Records. An
album on Sunnyside Records, Thunder And Rainbows/J.F.K., has also been credited
to him.
Kirkland is survived by his mother, a brother and two sisters.
The following is a list of charities to which donations may be made in memory
of Kenny Kirkland:
Nazareth High School
Dept. Of Student Development
Att: Kate DeMello
475 East 57th St.
Brooklyn, NY 11203
Manhattan School Of Music
Dept. Of Student Development
Att: Sheila Cameron
120 Claremont Ave.
New York, NY 10027
Jazz Foundation Of America
Att: Monet Molock
1200 Broadway Suite 7D
New York, NY 10001
VH1 Save The Music
Att: Jennifer Dunn
1515 Broadway 20th Floor
New York, NY 10036
Anyone wishing the Kirkland family apprised of their contribution should
include a note saying that the gift is in memory of Kenny Kirkland.