[Dixielandjazz] R.I.P. Kenny Powell

[Robert Ringwald]

Kenny Powell, 1925-2011; Jazzman Played with the Greats
by John Shand
Sydney Morning Herald, July 14, 2011
Few among those listening to Kenny Powell's dazzling jazz piano around Sydney would
have guessed at the full scope of his career; that they were hearing someone who
had worked with the Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Spike Milligan and Judy Garland.
"He can literally play anything," observed the late Len Barnard in "Jottings of a
Jazzman". Through Powell's work on such television variety shows as "Sunday Night
at the London Palladium" and "The Tom Jones Show", he played with many stars, providing
anything from solo accompaniment to lush orchestration.
Kenneth Guy Powell was an only child born on March 1, in Surrey, England. He liked
to obfuscate the year of his birth, with the accepted -- although not necessarily
correct -- year being 1925. He was schooled in Reigate, took up accordion and piano
(which his mother played) and, at 12, became the accordion champion of southern England.
He left school at 15, briefly worked in an architect's office, and by 16, was a professional
musician. He toured England with the Harry Parry Sextet, including playing in London
during the Blitz. When he was drafted, he switched to saxophone and joined an army
band stationed in Germany.
After the war, Powell played in such London nightclubs as the stylish Milroy -- frequented
by the rich and famous, including Ava Gardner, with whom he enjoyed a brief affair.
He worked with the jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli and accompanied the actor-singer
Diana Dors in Venice.
Powell was never out of work, his jazz and nightclub playing dovetailing with writing,
arranging and playing for television, mainly with the Jack Parnell Orchestra. Other
shows he worked on included "The Benny Hill Show", "The Avengers" and "Morecambe
and Wise", on which the Beatles appeared in 1963, joining their hosts for "Moonlight
Bay", with Powell on piano (later released on a Beatles anthology album).
Powell also worked with Sammy Davis jnr, Cyd Charisse, Nancy Wilson, Peggy Lee, Juliet
Prowse, Shirley Bassey, Dionne Warwick, Vera Lynn, Liza Minnelli, Harry Secombe and
Frankie Howerd. In 1969, when Frank Sinatra performed in London for the first time
in nine years, Powell was at the piano.
The trophies of a flourishing career included a 22-foot cruiser called Liszt -- the
name's rhyming slang possibly tempering any tribute to the composer/pianist. Powell
could not swim, however, and his future wife, Maggie McConaghy, twice had to rescue
him during their Thames boating expeditions.
Three years after he met McConaghy, she returned home to Australia and Powell, finding
that "nothing worked" without her, followed. They were married in Sydney in 1972.
He had worked briefly with Kamahl in London and became the singer's music director,
beginning a 30-year association.
"It was a sad irony that I had this genius of a man as my music director and never
made full use of him," Kamahl concedes.
"Fortunately, he had an outlet for jazz and everything else and so he kept his sanity
that way... There were times when things were not as rosy as they could have been
because he enjoyed a good wine.
"Those are the idiosyncrasies of geniuses but he made up for them every which way,
including a brilliant, and sometimes wicked, sense of humour."
Meanwhile, the pianist infiltrated the local jazz scene and wrote arrangements for
the ABC Showband. The guitarist, Grahame Conlon, said Powell did not think of playing
in terms of chords but of sounds he wanted to hear.
"Whatever he heard in his head, he'd just put his finger straight on the keyboard
and play it," Conlon said. "He was an improviser."
Kenny Powell is survived by Maggie, daughter Louisa and her family.


--Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Fulton Street Jazz Band
530/ 642-9551 Office
916/ 806-9551 Cell
Amateur (Ham) Radio K6YBV

The red cross knocked at my door asking if I could help towards the floods in Pakistan.
I said I would love to, but my hose only reaches the bottom of the driveway.