37 Facts About Kenny Clarke

Kenneth Clarke Spearman, nicknamed Klook, was an American jazz drummer and bandleader.

Kenny Clarke stayed in New York between 1951 and 1956, performing with the Modern Jazz Quartet and playing on early Miles Davis recordings.

Kenny Clarke continued to perform and record until the month before he died of a heart attack in January 1985.

Kenny Clarke was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on January 9,1914 as the youngest of two sons, to Martha Grace Scott, a pianist from Pittsburgh, and Charles Spearman, a trombonist from Waycross, Georgia.

Kenny Clarke's father left the household to start a new family in Yakima, Washington, and his mother, who began a relationship with a Baptist preacher shortly afterwards, died suddenly in her late twenties when Kenny Clarke was about five, leaving him an orphan.

Kenny Clarke dropped out of Herron Hill Junior High School at the age of fifteen.

Kenny Clarke then took on several odd jobs while establishing his music career, becoming a local professional with the Leroy Bradley Band by the age of seventeen.

Kenny Clarke stayed with that band for two years, broken up by a two-month stint with the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra, which at the time included trumpeter Harry Edison and bassist Walter Page, who would go on to be featured in the Count Basie Orchestra.

Kenny Clarke doubled on drums and the vibraphone in a trio with his half-brother Frank, a bassist and guitarist who had recently moved to New York and likewise changed his surname from Spearman to Clarke to profit from Kenny's newfound fame.

In 1936, Kenny Clarke played alongside guitarist Freddie Green in a group fronted by tenor saxophonist Lonnie Simmons, where he began to experiment with rhythmic patterns against the basic beat of the band.

Kenny Clarke had begun to outline and emphasize ensemble, brass, and saxophone figures and to support soloists in the manner that before long would be identified as his.

Kenny Clarke then spent eight months playing drums and the vibraphone in Claude Hopkins's group, before Gillespie gave Clarke an opening to join him in the Teddy Hill band in the Savoy Ballroom in 1939.

At the 1939 New York World's Fair, Kenny Clarke played opposite a band led by fellow drummer Chick Webb, who strongly influenced him and encouraged his rhythmic explorations.

Kenny Clarke was briefly fired from Hill's band due to unrest in the trombone section about his unorthodox time-keeping methods, but later returned and stayed with the group until it disbanded in 1940.

Kenny Clarke then worked with bands led by Sidney Bechet, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Armstrong, before working with Roy Eldridge along with the Count Basie Orchestra.

Kenny Clarke made recordings with Bechet, Fitzgerald, and Mildred Bailey.

In 1941, Kenny Clarke was hired by Hill, who had become the manager of Minton's Playhouse in Harlem, to handle the music at the club.

Kenny Clarke was given free rein over whom he could hire and which style of music he could play.

Kenny Clarke then led his own band at Kelly's Stables in New York, the Kansas City Six, featuring tenor saxophonist Ike Quebec, where the two are said to have come up with the riff tune "Mop Mop", played in a septet with saxophonist Benny Carter, and performed with Red Allen's band in Boston and Chicago.

Kenny Clarke was drafted into the US Army and reported for induction in 1943.

Kenny Clarke went absent without leave for nearly four months, during which time he played with Cootie Williams and Dinah Washington, before being captured and sent to Europe.

Shortly after being discharged from the military in 1946, Kenny Clarke converted to Islam and took the name Liaquat Ali Salaam.

Kenny Clarke joined Dizzy Gillespie's band for eight months, replacing Max Roach, who had become the most important bebop drummer in Clarke's absence.

Kenny Clarke left Gillespie's band temporarily and worked with Tadd Dameron, Sonny Stitt, Fats Navarro, and his own 52nd Street Boys, before rejoining Gillespie's group in December 1947.

Kenny Clarke embarked on a tour with the band in Europe in early 1948, which he considered the highlight of his career.

Kenny Clarke then returned to New York for nine months to work with Dameron's group at the Royal Roost.

In May 1949, Kenny Clarke returned to Paris for the festival, making the city his home base for the next two years.

Kenny Clarke left the ensemble in 1955, saying "I wouldn't be able to play the drums my way again after four or five years of playing eighteenth-century drawing-room jazz".

Kenny Clarke often worked with recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder, who dubbed Clarke's location in his studio "Klook's corner".

In September 1956, Kenny Clarke moved to Paris where he initially worked with Jacques Helian's orchestra, before holding engagements at the Club Saint-Germain and the Blue Note.

Kenny Clarke regularly worked with visiting American musicians such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, and Stan Getz, contributing with Davis to the soundtrack recording for Ascenseur pour l'echafaud.

Kenny Clarke formed a trio, known as "The Three Bosses", with pianist Bud Powell, another Paris resident, and bassist Pierre Michelot, who performed on the Davis soundtrack.

Kenny Clarke used just enough decoration to make the band's music, much of it with a blues base, a bit more exciting and interesting for the players and listeners.

Kenny Clarke began a drumming school with Dante Agostini at the headquarters of the instrument maker Henri Selmer Paris in 1965, and he and Agostini spent seven years creating a drumming method.

Kenny Clarke had a period of convalescence after a heart attack in 1975, before going to Chicago in September 1976 for a reunion of Gillespie's big band.

Kenny Clarke continued to perform at European jazz festivals until 1983 and made his last performances at a five-night-a-week engagement in December 1984.

Kenny Clarke was made an NEA Jazz Master in 1983 and inducted into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame through the Critics' Poll in 1988.