KENNY BURRELL

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Kenny Burrell, an all time favorite here at Formidable Magazine. His music is a wonderful blend of ultra cool elegance and conviction, musical inventiveness and thoughtful restraint. The owner of the original ultra cool bluesy jazz sound.

Kenny Burrell initially aspired to be a saxophone player, But in the early ’40s, most young musicians were far more attracted to horns—any horns—than they were to the still rarely heard jazz guitar. But he finally settled for guitar and started playing at age 12. He is said to have learned technique from watching his older brother Billy who was a guitarist and would let him tag along to his gigs. He cites Django Reinhart and Charlie Christian as early influences.

By 1956, Burrell had recorded the first album under his own leadership. Other albums under his name would follow at the rate of two a year. Over the next 50 years, he was constantly in the studio for other artists, as well, the epitome of a first-call player. His performance appearances—with artists ranging from Lester Young, Sonny Rollins, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald to the Platters, the Mills Brothers, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and Patti Page—represent a virtual history of American jazz and pop music in the second half of the 20th century.

Kenny Burrell has one of the most recognizable voices in jazz guitar and has been a leader and role model since he first appeared on the scene with Dizzy Gillespie’s band in 1951. The paragon of taste, feeling, and sophistication, Burrell is also the quintessential sideman, lending his touch to hundreds of important recordings over the last six decades.

“Midnight Blue” is the greatest expression of late-night “bluesy” jazz guitar playing and Kenny Burrell is the master of this style. This 180g LP one of the Finest Blue Note Jazz titles ever. Cut at 33 1/3rpm by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio.