[Dixielandjazz] Kenny Davern - NY TIMES Obit

[Steve Barbone]

Kenny Davern, 71, Clarinetist Who Loved Traditional Jazz, Dies

NY TIMES  - By DENNIS HEVESI - December 14, 2006

Kenny Davern, a radically traditional jazz clarinetist and soprano
saxophonist whose liquid tones linked him to the classical sound of New
Orleans but who could also play free jazz, died on Tuesday at his home in
Sandia Park, N.M. He was 71.

The cause was a heart attack, his wife, Elsa, said.

A professional on several instruments since his teens, Mr. Davern became
nationally known in the 1970s when, with the pianist Dick Wellstood and
another soprano saxophonist, Bob Wilber, he formed the Soprano Summit. The
band toured the world and recorded several well-received albums.

When the band reunited in the 1990s, Mr. Davern had returned almost
exclusively to the clarinet, on which he was known for hitting notes far
above the instrument¹s normal range.

³You could pick Kenny out on a record after two or three notes ‹like a hot
knife going through butter,² said Warren Vaché, a trumpeter and longtime
friend. ³His playing was edgy and cutting and virile and, at the same time,
passionate and tender..²

His style, Mr. Vaché said, ³was derived from Dixieland but weaved in
everything else.²

John Kenneth Davern was born on Jan. 7, 1935, in Huntington, N.Y., the son
of John and Josephine Davern.

By the age of 11, Kenny Davern was playing a clarinet that his mother had
bought for $35. Living with his grandparents in Woodhaven, Queens, after the
breakup of his parents¹ marriage, he played in the school band and in a
Dixieland band with friends from the neighborhood.

At 16, Mr. Davern got his first big break when the trumpeter Henry (Red)
Allen called him for a clarinet gig at an American Legion Hall in Queens. ³I
have no idea how he came to phone me,² he recalled in a profile written by
Brian Peerless, a British jazz impresario.

Within two years Mr. Davern was on the road in the saxophone section of
Ralph Flanagan¹s big band. He then auditioned for Jack Teagarden¹s Dixieland
band and afterward, Mr. Davern recalled, Mr. Teagarden asked, ³Kenny,
where¹ve you been all my life?²

In 1954, still a teenager, Mr. Davern made his recording debut with Mr.
Teagarden. Four years later he recorded his first album under his own name,
³In the Gloryland,²on the Elektra label. He later made many albums for the
Concord, Chiaroscuro and Arbors labels.

In the mid-1950s and ¹60s, enthralled by the recordings of Jimmie Noone, Mr.
Davern focused on the New Orleans style. He played with Phil Napoleon¹s
Memphis Five and Pee Wee Erwin¹s band, even joining the Dukes of Dixieland
for a couple of years. But later in the ¹60s, when Mr. Davern was regularly
leading his own traditional band at Nick¹s in Greenwich Village, he also
became close to musicians like the trombonist Roswell Rudd and the soprano
saxophonist Steve Lacy, Mr. Vaché said. ³Kenny¹s curiosity made him see the
good side of the avant-garde,² he said.

In later years he was a sought-after performer at jazz festivals in America
and Europe, resolutely playing his own lyrical version of a traditional
repertory from the 1920s on an instrument last popular in the 1940s.

He is survived by his wife of 36 years, the former Elsa Green, for whom he
and his friend the saxophonist Flip Phillips wrote the tune ³Elsa¹s Dream²;
two stepchildren, Mark Lass, of San Diego, and Deborah Wuensch, of Poulsbo,
Wash.; and four step-grandchildren.

Asked to name other jazz greats his friend had played with, Mr. Vaché said,
³We¹d need a year to list them all.²

But Mr. Davern, who was known for his acerbic wit on and off the bandstand,
listed as one of his favorite ensembles Dick Wellstood and His All-Star
Orchestra, which consisted of exactly two members.