Kenny Dorham

Infobox musical artist
Name = Kenny Dorham

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Img_capt = Kenny Dorham at the Metropole Hotel in Toronto, 1954.
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Background = non_vocal_instrumentalist
Birth_name = McKinley Howard Dorham
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Born = birth date|1924|8|30|mf=y - Fairfield, Texas
Died = death date and age|1972|12|5|1924|8|30|mf=y - New York (Aged 48)
Origin =
Instrument = Trumpet
Genre = Bebop
Mainstream jazz
Hard bop
Occupation = Bandleader, Composer
Years_active =
Label =
Associated_acts = Kenny Dorham Quartet
Kenny Dorham Quintet
URL =
Current_members =
Past_members =
Notable_instruments =

McKinley Howard (Kenny) Dorham (August 30, 1924 - December 5, 1972) was an American jazz trumpeter, singer, and composer born in Fairfield, Texas.

Dorham was one of the most active bebop trumpeters. He played in the big bands of Billy Eckstine, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton and Mercer Ellington and the quintet of Charlie Parker. He was a charter member of the original cooperative Jazz Messengers. He also recorded as a sideman with Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins, and he replaced Clifford Brown in the Max Roach Quintet after Brown's death in 1956. In addition to sideman work, he led his own groups, including the Jazz Prophets (formed shortly after Art Blakey took over the Jazz Messengers name). The Jazz Prophets, featuring a young Bobby Timmons on piano, bassist Sam Jones and tenorman J.R. Monterose with guest Kenny Burrell on guitar, can be heard on the 1956 Blue Note live album "Round About Midnight at the Cafe Bohemia".

In 1963 Dorham added the 26-year-old tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson to his group, which later recorded "Una Mas" (the group also featured a young Tony Williams). The friendship between the two musicians led to a number of other albums, such as Henderson's "Page One", "Our Thing" and "In'n'Out". Dorham recorded frequently throughout the sixties for Blue Note and Prestige Records, as leader and as sideman for Henderson, Jackie McLean, Cedar Walton, Andrew Hill, Milt Jackson and others.

Dorham's talent is frequently lauded by critics and other musicians, but he never received the kind of attention from the jazz establishment that many of his peers did. For this reason, his name has become (in the words of writer Gary Giddins) "virtually synonymous with 'underrated.'"

During his final years Dorham suffered from kidney disease, from which he died on December 5th 1972, aged just 48.

He composed the jazz standard "Blue Bossa," which appears on Joe Henderson's album "Page One."

elected Discography

* 1953 Kenny Dorham Quintet (A.k.a "Debut")
* 1955 Afro-Cuban
* 1956 'Round About Midnight At The Cafe Bohemia
* 1957 Kenny Dorham & Sonny Rollins - Jazz Contrast
* 1957 2 Horns/2 Rhythm
* 1958 This is the Moment!
* 1959 Quiet Kenny
* 1959 Kenny Dorham & Cannonball Adderley - Blue Spring
* 1960 Jazz Contemporary
* 1960 The Art of the Ballad
* 1961 Osmosis
* 1961 Whistle Stop
* 1963 One More Time (Una Más)
* 1964 Trompeta Toccata