For other people with similar names, see Kenneth Clark.
Kenny Clarke
Clarke in 1971
Background information
Birth name
Kenneth Clarke Spearman
Born
(1914-01-09)January 9, 1914
Origin
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Died
January 26, 1985(1985-01-26) (aged 71) Montreuil, France
Genres
Jazz
Occupation(s)
Musician
Instrument(s)
Drums
Years active
1931–1984
Musical artist
Kenneth Clarke Spearman (January 9, 1914 – January 26, 1985), known professionally as Kenny Clarke and nicknamed Klook, was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. A major innovator of the bebop style of drumming, he pioneered the use of the ride cymbal to keep time rather than the hi-hat, along with the use of the bass drum for irregular accents ("dropping bombs").
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he was orphaned at the age of about five and began playing the drums when he was eight or nine on the urging of a teacher at his orphanage. Turning professional in 1931 at the age of seventeen, he moved to New York City in 1935 when he began to establish his drumming style and reputation. As the house drummer at Minton's Playhouse in the early 1940s, he participated in the after-hours jams that led to the birth of bebop. After military service in the US and Europe between 1943 and 1946, he returned to New York, but from 1948 to 1951 he was mostly based in Paris. He stayed in New York between 1951 and 1956, performing with the Modern Jazz Quartet and playing on early Miles Davis recordings. He then moved permanently to Paris, where he performed and recorded with European and visiting American musicians and co-led the Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band between 1961 and 1972. He continued to perform and record until the month before he died of a heart attack in January 1985.
Kenneth Clarke Spearman (January 9, 1914 – January 26, 1985), known professionally as KennyClarke and nicknamed Klook, was an American jazz drummer and...
(vibraphone), Percy Heath (double bass), and various drummers, most notably KennyClarke (from 1952 to 1955) and Connie Kay (from 1955 to 1994). The group grew...
Kenneth Harry Clarke, Baron Clarke of Nottingham, CH, PC, KC (born 2 July 1940) is a British politician who served as Home Secretary from 1992 to 1993...
(Verve, 1968) Night Song (Verve, 1968) Asphalt Canyon Suite (Verve, 1969) KennyClarke Meets the Detroit Jazzmen (BYG, 1970) Guitar Genius in Japan with Attila...
Thelonious Monk; electric guitarist Charlie Christian; and drummers KennyClarke, Max Roach, and Art Blakey. The term "bebop" is derived from nonsense...
driver Kenny Chesney (born 1968), American country music singer, songwriter and record producer Kenny Chiu (born 1965), Canadian politician KennyClarke (1914–1985)...
Stan Tracey (1960–67). From 1967 to 1969, Scott was a member of the KennyClarke/Francy Boland Big Band, which toured Europe and included Johnny Griffin...
drummer KennyClarke in the 1940s in which a drummer plays spontaneous, accented hits on the snare drum or the bass drum. Whitehead, Kevin. "KennyClarke, Inventor...
Michelot on bass and drummer KennyClarke were present on both sessions. Meanwhile, Powell formed the Three Bosses Trio with Clarke and Michelot for a regular...
There he recorded and performed at the Blue Note with Jimmy Gourley and KennyClarke (as well as Rene Thomas); he returned to America only once, for the 1964...
fellow expatriates Bud Powell and KennyClarke, both Parisian residents, and native Parisian Pierre Michelot. Powell, Clarke and Michelot, under the name The...
jam sessions every night. The other regulars included J. J. Johnson, KennyClarke, Thelonious Monk, Fats Navarro, and Freddie Webster. Davis reunited with...
McKennyClarke (born 5 June 2003) is a West Indies cricketer. In December 2021, he was named in the West Indies squad for the 2022 ICC Under-19 Cricket...
arranger Gil Evans, Gerry Mulligan, Lee Konitz, John Lewis, Max Roach and KennyClarke. The arrangements for that group were scored for instruments rarely used...
Band Sound of KennyClarke & Francy Boland (1973) With others 1961 Live at Ronnie Scott's, Zoot Sims 1965 Now Hear Our Meanin' , KennyClarke 1966 Sound...
recorded the jazz fusion album Captain Marvel with Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Tony Williams, and in this period experimented with an Echoplex on his...
DLP-2) "Perdido" (Juan Tizol) – 7:43 "Salt Peanuts" (Dizzy Gillespie, KennyClarke) – 7:39 "All the Things You Are" (Jerome Kern)/"52nd Street Theme" (Thelonious...
Epistrophy (composition), a jazz standard composed by Thelonious Monk and KennyClarke in 1941 Epistrophy (Ran Blake album), a 1991 album by Ran Blake Epistrophy...
Thelonious Monk, Fletcher Henderson, Tadd Dameron, Dizzy Gillespie, KennyClarke, John Coltrane and Quincy Jones among others. He was born in Savannah...
brief affair with drummer KennyClarke. This affair produced a son, KennyClarke Jr. (born 1950), who was raised by Clarke's brother and his wife. During...
sessions with leading bebop figures including Tadd Dameron, Bud Powell, and KennyClarke, he became ill with tuberculosis and died at the age of 26. Despite the...
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