[Dixielandjazz] Kenny Davern

[Steve Barbone]

David Dustin <postmaster at fountainsquareramblers.org>
 
> Not sure that Left Coast OKOM event managers should be guilt-tripped about a
> failure to engage the late Kenny Davern when he was living nearby in New
> Mexico.  Kenny was a connected pro and certainly very able to reach out and
> influence buyers in major markets for his music. If I recall correctly that
> he passed from cancer, it is very likely that his health was such in the
> last couple of years that he was either unable to perform to his standard
> and realized it, or feeling so poorly that he was focused on treatment with
> music being the last thing on his mind.  I can't think of a more pathetic
> spectacle than putting a former monster player up on stage when his powers
> may have been taken from him by disease.  I played in a big band with an
> 86-year-old tenor player who used to cut a wide swath in Texas dance bands
> back in the day but was now being kept around (on ?second bari?) out of
> kindness. It was tough keeping him from launching into a solo when he no
> longer had the chops. I doubt many of us would have enjoyed seeing an ailing
> Kenny Davern trying to play through a lot of pain.

No, David, Kenny died very suddenly from an unexpected heart attack. He was
otherwise in good health so it seemed. He was playing up a storm these past
several years after he moved from New Jersey to New Mexico. Though I wasn't
there, I believe he played up a storm with "The Statesman of Jazz" (a super
group) at the Nairn International Jazz Festival in Scotland this past
August. He played better OKOM clarinet than anyone else alive today.

He had MONSTER CHOPS.

Yes, he was connected and able to influence buyers in major markets. And so
he didn't need the OKOM Festival scene as we know it on the DJML, since it
was not a major market to him. The major markets and Jazz Parties knew where
he was, as did most of the jazz musicians in the USA. But he would have
played almost anywhere if he was not traveling to Europe, or otherwise
booked. 

While living in NJ, he used to play as often as he could with the Tony
DiNicola Quartet/Quintet, Fri/Sat nights in Scanticon near Princeton when
ever he was available. Naturally when off in Europe at MAJOR JAZZ FESTIVALS,
he wouldn't be there etc. The venue was a small restaurant. Capacity of
maybe 100 people tops. Gig paid $100 for 3 hours to me whenever I subbed for
him, and I don't think he got much more because the economics of the joint
didn't allow for more. That band was unbelievably superb when he was there
and I went there many times with my wife to see him when I wasn't gigging.

He and Tony were great friends and had played together for years. The money
didn't matter. Tony died from cancer about 6 months ago, also playing up a
storm till the very end and keeping his illness a secret from all but his
closest gig buddies.

I agree with you. If one was not a fan of Kenny's, one should not be faulted
for not knowing he moved to New Mexico. Someone else faulted OKOM festival
bookers for not knowing. However, my original post just lamented that he
didn't play more festivals out west when he was so close by. It did, however
fault some folks. Namely OKOM jazz fans who might have listened to Davern a
little more frequently, while he was among us. Too many of us did not see
him live, too many of us did not collect his records, too many of us ignored
him.

YET HE WAS THE BEST IN THE WORLD THERE WAS ON CLARINET IN OKOM FOR AT LEAST
THE PAST 40 YEARS, and among the best JAZZ clarinetists that ever lived.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone