Home » Jazz Musicians » Kenny Dorham

Kenny Dorham

McKinley Howard Dorham was born on August 30, 1924 on a ranch called Post Oak, near Fairfield, Texas. He attended Anderson High School in Austin, where he began teaching himself to play piano and trumpet, and spending much of his time on the school boxing team. He later enrolled at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, studying chemistry and minoring in physics. During this time he experimented with arranging, writing for the stage band, where he met such players as Wild Bill Davis, Harold Land, and Roy Porter.

He was drafted into the army in 1942 (spending some time with the army boxing team) and was discharged about a year later.

In late 1943 he joined the Russell Jacquet orchestra in Houston, and he spent much of 1944 playing the band of Frank Humphries. By 1945, Dorham had gained positions with Dizzy Gillespie's short-lived first big band, and then replaced Fats Navarro in Billy Eckstine's orchestra. In 1946 he recorded with the Be Bop Boys (aka the 52nd Street Boys, including Fats Navarro), and spent time playing in the bands of Lionel Hampton and Mercer Ellington.

During this time, Dorham continued to compose and arrange (he arranged "Okay for Baby" for Lucky Millinder and Benny Carter, and "Malibu" for Cootie Williams), ghosting arrangements for Walter 'Gil' Fuller which were sold to several name big bands, including Harry James, Jimmy Dorsey, and Gene Krupa.

In 1948, Dorham studied composition and arranging at the Gotham School of Music under the G.I. Bill. On Christmas Eve of that year, Dorham performed for the first time as replacement for Miles Davis in the Charlie Parker quintet, where he would play for about a year (Davis had recommended Dorham for the job), including an appearance at the 1949 Paris Jazz Fair.

After a two-year hiatus starting in 1950, during which Dorham lived and worked day jobs in California, he settled in New York City and began a busy career as a free-lance musician, perorming with players such as Bud Powell, Sonny Stitt, Thelonious Monk, and Mary Lou Williams. In 1952 Dorham recorded with Monk and in late 1953 led his first recording as a leader, a 10-inch record on the Debut label.

Joe Henderson: The Complete Joe Henderson Blue Note Studio Sessions

Read "The Complete Joe Henderson Blue Note Studio Sessions" reviewed by Scott Gudell

by Scott Gudell
November 22, 2021

If an artist stamps his jazz passport with any one of these labels--Blue Note, Verve, Milestone--it's pretty much a guarantee that you've arrived in style. Tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson has traveled with all three and more. The 2021 reissue from the prestigious Mosaic Records focuses on Henderson's 1960s tenure with Blue Note offers a new opportunity to experience an abundance of rich and creative jazz from the decade. Big band and bop were duking it out in the ...

Album Review

Charlie Parker: Be Bop Live

Read "Be Bop Live" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
February 6, 2021

The name of the record label is ezz-thetics, which was also a composition by George Russell and an album of the same name (which featured Eric Dolphy) released by Riverside Records in 1961. Maybe a better moniker for the label is “Lest We Forget." Not that we could ever abandon Charlie Parker, but today when streaming services replace CDs and LPs, which also replaced 78s and live radio broadcasts (the streaming service of its day), Parker has the possibility of ...

Album Review

Charlie Parker Quintets: Be Bop Live

Read "Be Bop Live" reviewed by Stefano Merighi

by Stefano Merighi
January 25, 2021

Benvenuti a uno dei convegni di bellezza più eccitanti che il jazz abbia mai prodotto. Royal Roost, New York City, dicembre 1948-febbraio 1949, due mesi in cui Charlie “Bird" Parker teneva il cartellone nel club della Quarantasettesima, sconvolgendo il pubblico con alcune tra le sue esibizioni più brillanti. Il bop era già linguaggio assimilato ormai, ma l'eccezionalità di quelle serate confermava Parker come punta di diamante di tutta la cultura africana-americana, al di là delle correnti jazzistiche.Questo doppio ...

Radio & Podcasts

Hard Bop Trumpet - Kenny Dorham, Dizzy Reece, Blue Mitchell (1962 - 1964)

by Russell Perry
December 24, 2019

This is the final hour of a four-part sequence featuring important tenor players and trumpeters who propelled hard bop into the 1960s. In this hour, we will continue with the Trumpet Players, Part 2, featuring lesser-known players—unsung veteran Kenny Dorham who recorded with both Dizzy and Bird in the 1940s, London-based Jamaican trumpet player Dizzy Reece, and Blue Mitchell who got his start with Cannonball Adderley and had a long tenure in the Horace Silver Quintet in the early 1960s. ...

Multiple Reviews

Music Matters: SRX Vinyl

by Greg Simmons
January 10, 2019

Music Matters, the vinyl reissue house known for it's long string of high-quality all-analog pressings of classic Blue Note records, has released a dozen additional titles just a year or so after completing what was supposed to have been their final offerings. The new records include some that Music Matters had released in earlier series, as well as new titles. All of them are being pressed on a new vinyl formula that purports quieter surfaces and improved resolution. The material, ...

My Blue Note Obsession

Kenny Dorham: The Complete ‘Round About Midnight at the Café Bohemia – Blue Note 1524

by Marc Davis
October 6, 2014

I think I have a new favorite hard bop record. For many years, I considered Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers the perfect hard bop band--the Beatles of the bop set. I still do. I don't know how Blakey managed to find the very best up-and-coming jazz musicians in America, year after year, but somehow he did. And somehow the various bands he put together, no matter who was in them, produced superlative 5-star records, year after year. ...

134

Album Review

Kenny Dorham: Una Mas

by Greg Simmons
November 22, 2011

Trumpeter Kenny Dorham's Una Mas was one of 1963's best records. The thought of hearing it reissued on ultra-high quality vinyl by the good folks at Music Matters should make jazz heads swoon. With its melding of hard-bop, bossa nova, and the blues, Una Mas is a prime example of the memorable vamps that Blue Note favored at the time, finding ultimate success later that year with Lee Morgan's The Sidewinder. Dorham was a prolific recording artist for ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Kenny Dorham

Source: Michael Ricci
August 30, 2023

All About Jazz is celebrating Kenny Dorham's birthday today!

Overshadowed for most of his career by the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro, Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, and Lee Morgan, Kenny Dorham's abilities as a composer and unique voice as an advanced bop trumpet player are underrated to this day. McKinley Howard Dorham was born on August 30, 1924 on a ranch called Post Oak, near Fairfield, Texas. He attended Anderson High School in Austin, where he began teaching himself ...
read more

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Kenny Dorham

Source: Michael Ricci
August 30, 2022

All About Jazz is celebrating Kenny Dorham's birthday today!

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Kenny Dorham

Source: Michael Ricci
August 30, 2021

All About Jazz is celebrating Kenny Dorham's birthday today!

TV / Film

Barney Wilen and Kenny Dorham

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 25, 2021

Jazz and French movies were a natural fit in 1950s. The most famous soundtrack is Miles Davis's Ascenseur Pour L'echafaud (Elevator to the Gallows), recorded in Paris in December 1957 with Davis (tp), Barney Wilen (ts), Rene Urtreger (p), Pierre Michelot (b) and Kenny Clarke (d). Almost as well known is Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960 (Dangerous Affairs 1960), recorded in New York in July 1959 with Charlie Rouse and Barney Wilen (ts), Thelonious Monk (p), Sam Jones (b) and Art ...
read more

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Kenny Dorham

Source: Michael Ricci
August 30, 2020

All About Jazz is celebrating Kenny Dorham's birthday today!

Video / DVD

Kenny Dorham in 10 Tracks

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
June 16, 2020

Trumpeter Kenny Dorham never received the recognition he deserved. I'm not sure why. Part of the problem, I suppose, is that he was a gentler soul among hotter players such as Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown and others. He certainly was on plenty of remarkable recording sessions, and his playing was pretty and engaging. Listening to him yesterday, I figured why not blow him out a bit today to show just how remarkable he was. Choosing 10 ...
read more

Festival

Celebrating Ten Years Of Jazz OUTside At Kenny Dorham's Backyard in Austin

Source: Willie Oteri
February 8, 2020

A festival in celebration of ten years of Jazz OUTside February 29, 2020 From 2:pm to 6:pm Kenny Dorham's Backyard 1106 E. 11th St. Austin, TX 78702 Ten years ago a residency, showcase and open jam session began at Kenny Dorham's Backyard in jny: Austin Texas. The brainchild of bassist and curator Harold McMillan of Diverse Arts Culture Works and international musician Willie Oteri after seeing little to no support from Austin ...
read more

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Kenny Dorham

Source: Michael Ricci
August 30, 2019

All About Jazz is celebrating Kenny Dorham's birthday today!

Overshadowed for most of his career by the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro, Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, and Lee Morgan, Kenny Dorham\'s abilities as a composer and unique voice as an advanced bop trumpet player are underrated to this day. McKinley Howard Dorham was born on August 30, 1924 on a ranch called Post Oak, near Fairfield, Texas. He attended Anderson High School in Austin... Read more.

Place our Musician ...
read more