Kenny Dorham - Austin Chronicle 14 September 2018

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

An extract from a very good piece about Kenny from the Austin Chronicle last week (14/9/2018)

"The week leading up to Dorham's death on Tuesday, December 5, 1972, he told his young friend (Jimmy) Owens to catch him after a (dialysis) appointment. Owens wanted to interview his hero about his health problems and causes. Dorham told him to call after dialysis, because he'd feel stronger. This happened twice. The interview never happened.

Reedman Jimmy Heath says Dorham had made up his mind about dialysis.

"He decided not to go," reveals Heath. "He'd had enough of it, and he said he wasn't going. His lady friend told him, she said, 'Man, if you don't go, K.D., then you can't stay. You're gonna die, man.' He got tired of that dialysis thing, and he split."

Both Heath and Owens agree that their friend knew his fate. Many things had not cut Dorham's way. He would make sure the last thing would.

Dorham miraculously arrived at his own benefit at Old West Church in Boston on Sunday, December 3, an event created with the help of trumpeter Claudio Roditi and associate minister/player Mark Harvey.

"It was quite remarkable because he was not in good health," says Harvey, now a Ph.D. holding senior lecturer status at MIT. "We started talking trumpet, and he said, 'Well, I have my horn, could I play?'"

As the show's closer, a 10-man trumpet choir began Dizzy Gillespie's 1942 standard "A Night in Tunisia," with Dorham taking the first solo. It was the last tune he played in public.

"He showed everybody what perfect trumpet playing was about. That's how good he was," remembers Harvey. "Beautiful sound, beautiful technique. It was a master class from a master. We had about 300 people at the benefit, and there was a sustained standing ovation. It was a truly memorable moment."

If only for a fleeting moment, a 10-foot titan once again stood head and shoulders above his peers.

Blumenthal recalls a wrenching quote from Dorham: "I played one tune and got a standing ovation. It was beautiful, but it makes me sad too – that the ovations never happened when I was healthy."

A VERY GREAT musician.

BN

[Ian Thumwood]

Got to agree with this assessment of Kenny Dorham. I think he fits in to a category of jazz musician who most people do not understand to begin with and it does take a while to really appreciate what his music is about. I have been listening to a lot of his music and would have to say that I find him far more interesting than someone like Clifford Brown or Lee Morgan. I think Morgan was a particularly nuanced player yet the appeal of Dorham for me rests with the fact that I think he was totally different in his approach to most of his contemporaries. You can almost compare him to Lester Young in the 1930s when he did not only not sound like the rest of the competition on tenor but had an approach which was against the then current ethos. On top of this, he was also a terrific composer.

I came to Dorham late and wasn't really that impressed upon first hearing. It ws only after hearing "Our thing" that I really got switched on to his playing before the millennium and even then, only became something of an addict after than point. The albums with Joe Henderson are fabulous but "Whistle stop" should not be over-looked either as this probably needs to be considered amongst the best 10 albums on Blue Note. Certainly, Hank Mobley never played better than on this disc in my opinion.

I think jazz trumpet does come with an element of burden associated with the "heroic" role for the instrument that stems from the days of Keppard, oliver and ultimately Armstrong. There is a quote by Gil evans to the effect that Miles Davis was the first trumpeter to think outside of this concept but I feel that Dorham needs to be added to that list. The only other "different" trumpeter I can think of is Benny Carter who sounds like the saxophonist he was mutated through a trumpet. I don't think that Dorham got the dues he deserved when he was alive yet I think that anyone who has ever stumbled across his music in these times is likely to be extremely favourable in their perception. I feel he is now far more recognised but there are players like Andrew Hill and Herbie Nichols who share this trait with Dorham insofar their approach sits too far outside of the mainstream and doesn't get the recognition it deserves at the time. I don't think it is open to debate that Dorham is now more widely recognised in his lifetime than he was in his own time. There was a website advertising a book of Kenny DOrham lead-sheets which I was anxious to acquire but the book was discontinued when I rang up to buy a copy. The book was compiled by Walter Davis. When I asked about the book, the proprietor was incredibly fulsome in his praise of Dorham. second copies are now going for £800 on line.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Keep-Calm-Listen-Kenny-Dorham/dp/171792994X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1537048596&sr=1-1&keywords=kenny+dorham

I think it will be interesting to look back in 25 years time as see how the perception of jazz will have changed and how musicians consider the work of players outside of the mainstream.