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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZGRAHAM, Kenny(b Kenneth Thomas Skingle, 19 July '24, London; d 17 Feb. '97) Tenor sax, composer, arranger, bandleader. He began studying the banjo at age six, turned to reeds at about ten and played professionally from '40. He worked post-war with trumpeter/ bandleader Jiver Hutchinson (1907-59, b Leslie George Hutchinson in Jamaica) and drummer Jack Parnell among others. He formed his own band the Afro-Cubists '50; they opened Club 51 '51, which became the leading London venue for modern jazz for several years. It is not too much to say that the Afro-Cubists were the first British group to make an original contribution to jazz, with between seven and eleven pieces recording over 25 tracks for Esquire between Feb. '51 and Oct. '53, including alternative takes and the eight-part 'Caribbean Suite'. Graham had played in dance bands that had to play Latin-American tunes and discovered that the modern jazz in which he was interested fitted perfectly with the exotic percussion instruments. The Afro-Cubists' best players were Roy Plummer on guitar, Phil Seamen or Dickie Devere (real name Paul Rainberg) on drums, and Ralph Dollimore on piano, and the band sometimes included Africans resident in London on bongos and congos, but none of these was present all the time (Plummer and others were never full-time members). Recording sessions '53 included a five-strong reed section. Often with bongos, congos and maracas as well as the traps the group should have been percussion-heavy but was not, thanks to Graham's skill as an arranger and a leader; the rhythms were more interesting and more complex than the similar things Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie were doing at around the same time with Machito in NYC, and Graham grew rapidly as a composer: 'Kenny's Gig' combined the Irish 'Kerry Dance' with bop phrasing and African rhythms and 'Bongo Chant' crossed calypso with bop, while 'Pip Squeak' and 'Cuban Canon' had melodic counterpoint to match that of the rhythm section. The band broke up '52 except for recordings and reunions, giving Graham more time to write; the result including the ten-minute 'Afro-Kadabra', a first-rate jazz composition, and the 'Caribbean Suite' (with a new version of 'Mango Walk', also recorded at the first session). If these recordings had been made in the USA they would be legendary today instead of almost forgotten. Graham suffered from ill health, made more recording sessions '54-7 for Esquire, MGM and Nixa including his 'Moondog Suite' and 'Suncat Suite' on MGM '56. Like so many other jazzmen on both sides of the pond he turned to studio work, writing for films and radio as well as arrangements for Ted Heath and Humphrey Lyttelton. He re-formed the Afro-Cubists briefly '67, but gave up and went to work on the London underground [subway]. |