Kenny Burrell
guitar
Detroit guitarist of Barry’s generation; Barry ranks him with Tommy Flanagan as the most advanced young bebop players in their Detroit circle, says he learned from them, and names him first president of the city’s music society.
- mentions
- 11
- recordings
- 8
- Barry speaking
- 4
What Barry says
Barry says he learned more from Tommy Flanagan and Kenny Burrell, who were perhaps the most advanced of the young players when they were all about 14 to 16.
The last train to Monk: an interview13:45
Asked how the Detroit players collaborated, Barry says they didn’t: they went to hear each other play. He would go to hear Tommy Flanagan and Kenny Burrell (captioned ‘Kenny Reel’), the two best players, and he listened and followed behind Flanagan.
Interview: Detroit, Bud Powell and the shuffle5:08
In other interviews he calls Burrell and Flanagan the best of the young bebop musicians, and the hippest bebop players around, while describing himself as the quiet, shy one.
Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶163Ted Panken, For Barry Harris’ 82nd Birthday ¶15
Asked about his mentors, he says there were so many good musicians in Detroit, but the best of the young were Burrell and Flanagan; then he lists players nobody has heard of, such as Will Davis and Phil Hill.
Detroit had a music society of about 5,000 members, called the World Stage, before Barry had heard of any other jazz society. Burrell was its first president, with Chuck Carter next, and everybody played there, Max Roach included.
Interview: Detroit and after3:31Detroit Jazz: Ancient to the Future37:29Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶67
Sorting the Detroit schools, Barry says Burrell went to Miller High School, as did the pianist Terry Pollard, while Barry went to Northeastern.
In his own words
See, I learned more from Tommy Flanagan and Kenny Burrell. They were like maybe the most advanced of us young cats.
We just went to see each other play. I would go to Tommy and Kenny Burrell. They were about the best two players.
I think Tommy Flanagan was more schooled than me; he and Kenny Burrell were the hippest bebop players around.
We had a music society before I even heard any other jazz society. Kenny Burrell was the first President. It was called the World Stage.
there were so many good musicians around Detroit. I’d have to say the best of the young would be Kenny Burrell and Tommy Flanagan.
Every mention
11 moments in the recordings, 4 of them Barry speaking. Each says who is talking.
The last train to Monk: an interview
- 13:45
Says he learned more from Flanagan and Burrell, the most advanced of the young players.
Interview: Detroit, Bud Powell and the shuffle
- 5:08
They didn’t collaborate; he went to hear Flanagan and Burrell (caption ‘Kenny Reel’), the two best players.
- 4:36
Interviewer
Jake Feinberg says he has interviewed Kenny Burrell and the rest of the Detroit players.
- 0:37
Interviewer
Introduction says Barry learned in the houses of Lateef, Byrd, Flanagan, Burrell and others.
Interview: Detroit and after
- 3:31
Detroit’s jazz society was 5,000 strong, and Burrell was its first president.
Detroit Jazz: Ancient to the Future
- 37:29
On 1981 Detroit TV: Burrell was first president of the music society; Chuck Carter came next.
Interview: Bud Powell and teaching singers
Artists House Master Class Barry Harris - Introduction by Gary Giddins
- 1:58
Someone else
Gary Giddins names Burrell among the post-war Detroit circle Barry came up in.
ManagersPro.com “Barry Harris talks about as a mentor to developing pianists.”
- 1:58
Someone else
The same Giddins introduction in another upload names Burrell among the Detroit circle.
JAZZ NOTES 026 | Jazz Biography | Jazz From Detroit Pt 2 | Jazz Radio
- 58:01
Someone else
A radio host closes a Detroit jazz programme with Burrell’s tune Soul Lament.
In the interviews and notes
Detroit had a music society of about 5,000 members, called the World Stage, with Kenny Burrell as its first president. Barry finds it odd that Billy Higgins’s place in Los Angeles has the same name.
Barry thinks Flanagan had more classical schooling than he did, and calls Flanagan and Burrell the hippest bebop players around; he himself was quiet and shy, with no sports, just the piano.
Talking about the musicians who left Detroit around the time he did in 1960, Barry says that when they were younger, Burrell (transcribed ‘Kenny Durrell’) and Flanagan were probably the best of the young bebop musicians.
Burrell went to Miller High School, along with Terry Pollard; Barry went to Northeastern, and Sonny Red and Flanagan to Northern.
Asked who his mentors were, Barry names Burrell and Flanagan as the best of the young players, then lesser-known Detroit musicians, and says he learned chords by watching Flanagan at dances.
De Lima counts Burrell among Barry’s Detroit mentors and among the local idols who shaped him in his teens, a background he says earlier books on Barry’s method leave out.
Brian Jude de Lima, Reanimating Dissonance: Cultivating the Antecedents of Barry Harris’ Concept of Movement as a Multidimensional Pedagogical Tool for Ontario Post-Secondary Jazz Curricula ¶687Brian Jude de Lima, Reanimating Dissonance: Cultivating the Antecedents of Barry Harris’ Concept of Movement as a Multidimensional Pedagogical Tool for Ontario Post-Secondary Jazz Curricula ¶1301
Velez says Barry credits Detroit’s school system with nurturing him, and that it produced many top musicians who stayed his friends for life, Burrell, Flanagan and the Jones brothers among them.
Panken lists the guitarist Kenny Burrell in Barry’s Detroit peer group, and in the WKCR interview names him among the contemporaries who came to New York at about the same time.
Ted Panken, For Barry Harris’ 82nd Birthday ¶5Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶66
Schermer names Burrell among the major players to come out of the Detroit jazz scene of the 1940s and 1950s in which Barry grew up.
Method ideas nearby
Ideas of the method taught in the classes where they come up, with how many mentions fall in each.