Kenny Graham (musician)
| Kenny Graham | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Kenneth Thomas Skingle |
| Born |
July 19, 1924 Ealing, London, England |
| Died | February 17, 1997 (aged 72) London, England |
| Genres | Jazz, bebop |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer, arranger |
| Instruments | Tenor saxophone, alto |
| Years active | 1940–1980s |
Kenny Graham, born Kenneth Thomas Skingle (19 July 1924–17 February 1997) was a British jazz saxophonist, arranger, composer and essayist, described as "one of Britain's foremost jazz composers and arrangers", and as "a genuine, often overlooked pioneer of the modern jazz movement in Britain".
He was born in Ealing, London, and learned to play the banjo as a young child. He then learned the saxophone, with the tenor sax his preferred instrument by the time he became a professional musician at the age of 16. He joined the army in 1942, expecting to join a service band, but was turned down for that role and went absent without leave, dyeing his red hair black and working under the name Tex Kershaw for two years as a member of Johnny Claes's Claepigeons.
After the end of the war, he played in many of the leading British dance bands of the era, including those led by Nat Temple, Nat Gonella, Ambrose, Leslie "Jiver" Hutchinson and Eric Winstone, as well as in Victor Feldman's Sextet, before forming Kenny Graham's Afro-Cubists in April 1950. The band sought to develop "an amalgam of bebop, African and Cuban rhythms and super-modern harmonies". Although "artistically successful" and acclaimed for its innovative style, the band was not widely popular with audiences and the original band folded in March 1952 when trumpeter Jo Hunter and drummer Dicky DeVere left. However, a new band of Afro-Cubists performed at the opening night of the Flamingo Club in Soho in August 1952. Graham also played baritone sax in Jack Parnell's band, and tenor with other bands, occasionally reconvening the Afro-Cubists for recordings and performances. The Afro-Cubists recorded two EPs in 1954, Afro-Cadabra and Excerpts from Caribbean Suite, with a band including saxophonist Eddie Mordue and drummer Phil Seamen.
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