Music
Kenny Burrell
born 1931 · jazz guitarist, composer, educator
Detroit-born jazz guitarist who came up in the city's 1950s bebop clubs and Wayne State, then became a Blue Note mainstay and a leading jazz educator.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan
age 95- Birth name
- Kenneth Earl Burrell
- Detroit years
- 1931–1956
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Kenny Burrell was born in Detroit, the youngest of six children, and lost his father, an auto mechanic, when he was six. He grew up in a musical household and was drawn to the guitar by Charlie Christian and T-Bone Walker. While studying at Wayne State University he made his recording debut in 1951 with Dizzy Gillespie's sextet and cut a single under his own name at Detroit's Fortune Records. With Pepper Adams, Donald Byrd, Elvin Jones and Yusef Lateef he formed the New World Music Society, and he led bands in the city's bebop rooms, including the Blue Bird Inn and Klein's Show Bar, where Pepper Adams joined his group in 1954. In 1956 he and pianist Tommy Flanagan left together for New York. There he became one of Blue Note's defining guitarists, recording Midnight Blue and a string of hits with organist Jimmy Smith, and later led jazz studies at UCLA.
Highlights
- Recording debut with Dizzy Gillespie's sextet (1951)
- Classic Blue Note album Midnight Blue (1963)
- Top 20 hit album Organ Grinder Swing with Jimmy Smith (1965)
- NEA Jazz Master (2005)
- Director of Jazz Studies at UCLA since 1996
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 4
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · early 1950s
Wayne State University
He studied music here while already recording and leading bands.
Performed here · 1950s
Blue Bird Inn
Closed
West side bar that was Detroit's key bebop room around 1950. The Detroit Sound Conservancy bought it in 2018 and is restoring it; it became a local historic district in 2020.
Performed here · 1954–1955
Klein's Show Bar
Closed
Detroit jazz club where he led the house group that Pepper Adams joined in late 1954.
Recorded here · early 1950s
Fortune Records
Closed
Detroit independent label where he recorded his first single as a leader, “Rose of Tangier”/“Ground Round”.