Kenny Clarke

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 about age five and began playing drums when he was eight or nine at the urging of a teacher at his orphanage. He turned professional in 1931 at age 17; four years later, he moved to New York City where 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 serving in the military in the US and Europe from 1943 to 1946, he returned to New York but was mostly based in Paris between 1948 and 1951. He stayed in New York for the next five years, performing with the Modern Jazz Quartet and playing on early Miles Davis recordings. Clarke 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 shortly before his death of a heart attack in January 1985.

Biography Early life and career (1914–1935) Clarke was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on January 9, 1914. He was the younger of two sons born to Martha Grace Scott, a pianist from Pittsburgh, and Charles Spearman, a trombonist from Waycross, Georgia. The family lived on Wylie Avenue in the Lower Hill District of Pittsburgh.

Spearman left the household to start a new family in Yakima, Washington. Scott, who began a relationship with a Baptist preacher shortly afterwards, died suddenly in her late twenties when Clarke was about five, leaving him an orphan. He and his brother were placed in the Coleman Industrial Home for Negro Boys. After trying a few brass instruments, Clarke (at the urging of a teacher) played snare drum in the orphanage's marching band at about age eight or nine. He also played the piano, on which his mother had taught him some simple tunes, as well as the pump organ at the parish church, for which he played hymns and composed pieces that were introduced there.

At age eleven or twelve, Clarke and his brother resumed living with their stepfather, who did not look favorably upon music or associating with those involved with it. Clarke dropped out of Herron Hill Junior High School at 15. Around the same time, their stepfather threw Clarke and his brother out after an argument. Clarke was placed in a foster home without his brother, where he lived for about a year until his 16th birthday.

In his book Drummin' Men: The Heartbeat of Jazz, music critic Burt Korall writes of this time period: "Clarke was moving beyond mere functional timekeeping. He 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. ... The revision of the swing drum style had not yet become fully apparent. But it was clear Clarke was working on something new."

On the bass drum, he played irregular accents (dropping bombs) while using the hi-hat on the backbeats, adding more color to his drumming.

Military service and later career in the United States (1943–1956) Clarke was drafted into the US Army and reported for induction in 1943. During his basic training in 1944, he married singer Carmen McRae. He went absent without leave for nearly four months, during which time he played with Cootie Williams and Dinah Washington, before being arrested and sent to Europe. He eventually joined Special Services, where he led and sang in chorales and performed on drums, trombone, and piano in various bands. While in Paris, he met pianist and arranger John Lewis, with whom he began a long association.

Upon returning to New York in 1951, he toured with Billy Eckstine, and made recordings with saxophonist Charlie Parker's quintet and Milt Jackson's quartet. Jackson's ensemble, which included Clarke's friend John Lewis, became the Modern Jazz Quartet, and he performed with the group at the first Newport Jazz Festival in 1954 and recorded for their albums Modern Jazz Quartet (1952), 1953: An Exceptional Encounter (1953), and Django (1953–1955). He 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". and Walkin', along with 1959's Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants. Korall described these recordings as "his best work of the 1950s – perhaps of his entire career", writing: "Clarke follows feelings, lives inside the pulse, defining the contours, dynamics, and implications of each solo and each piece. Like Dave Tough, he is a totally unselfish player – nonintrusive yet spirited and spiritual." During this period he was the resident drummer and a talent scout for Savoy Records, introducing the label to artists such as saxophonists Cannonball Adderley and Pepper Adams, and trumpeter Donald Byrd.

In 1967, he began teaching at the Saint-Germain-en-Laye Conservatoire (where he worked until 1972). and inducted into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame through the Critics' Poll in 1988. In 2024, he was inducted into Jazz at Lincoln Center's Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame.

Discography As leader or co-leader Special Kenny Clarke 1938–1959 (Jazz Muse) Telefunken Blues (Savoy, 1955) Kenny Clarke & Ernie Wilkins (Savoy, 1955) with Ernie Wilkins Bohemia After Dark (Savoy, 1955) Klook's Clique (Savoy, 1956) Jazzmen: Detroit (Savoy, 1956) Plays André Hodeir (Philips, 1956) The Golden 8 (Blue Note, 1961) Americans in Europe Vol. 1 (Impulse!, 1963) Pieces of Time (Soul Note, 1983) Kenny Clarke / Francy Boland Big Band (1962–1971) see discography section of The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band

As sideman

With Nat Adderley That's Nat (Savoy, 1955) With Gene Ammons All Star Sessions (Prestige, 1956) Gene Ammons and Friends at Montreux (Prestige, 1973) With Elek Bacsik The Electric Guitar of the Eclectic Elek Bacsik (Fontana, 1962) With Eddie Bert Musician of the Year (Savoy, 1955) Encore (Savoy, 1955) Montage (Savoy, 1955) With Ray Bryant Ray Bryant Trio (Epic, 1956) With Kenny Burrell Jazzmen Detroit with Kenny Burrell, Tommy Flanagan, Pepper Adams, Paul Chambers (1956; Savoy) Introducing Kenny Burrell (Blue Note, 1956) With Donald Byrd Byrd's Word (Savoy, 1955) With Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Johnny Griffin Tough Tenors Again 'n' Again (MPS, 1970) With Miles Davis Birth of the Cool (Capitol, 1949) Bags' Groove (Prestige, 1957) Walkin' (Prestige, 1957) Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Fontana, 1958) Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants (Prestige, 1959) With Art Farmer Early Art (New Jazz, 1954) When Farmer Met Gryce (Prestige, 1954) with Gigi Gryce With Frank Foster No 'Count (Savoy, 1956) With Dizzy Gillespie Dizzy Gillespie and the Double Six of Paris (Philips, 1963) The Giant (America, 1973) The Source (America, 1973) The Complete RCA Victor Recordings (Bluebird, 1995) With Dexter Gordon Our Man in Paris (Blue Note, 1963) Blues à la Suisse (Prestige, 1973) With Johnny Griffin Night Lady (Philips, 1964) With Urbie Green Blues and Other Shades of Green (ABC-Paramount, 1955) With Hampton Hawes Playin' in the Yard (Prestige, 1973) With Noah Howard Red Star (Mercury, 1977) With Milt Jackson Wizard of the Vibes (Blue Note, 1952) Opus de Jazz (Savoy, 1955) Roll 'Em Bags (Savoy, 1956) Meet Milt Jackson (Savoy, 1956) Ballads & Blues (Atlantic, 1956) The Jazz Skyline (Savoy, 1956) With J. J. Johnson Jay Jay Johnson with Clifford Brown (Blue Note, 1953) The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson, Vol. 2 (Blue Note, 1954) The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson, Vol. 3 (Blue Note, 1955) With J. J. Johnson and Kai Winding Jay and Kai (Columbia, 1957) With Hank Jones The Trio (Savoy, 1955) Bluebird (Savoy, 1955) Quartet-Quintet (Savoy, 1955) Hank Jones' Quartet (Savoy, 1956) With Lee Konitz Lee Konitz with Warne Marsh (Atlantic, 1955) With John Lewis Afternoon in Paris (Atlantic, 1957) with Sacha Distel With Carmen McRae Carmen McRae (Bethlehem 1954) With Charles Mingus Jazz Composers Workshop (Savoy, 1955) With the Modern Jazz Quartet Modern Jazz Quartet (Prestige, 1952) Django (Prestige, 1956) 1953: An Exceptional Encounter (The Jazz Factory, 2001) With Thelonious Monk Thelonious Monk Plays the Music of Duke Ellington with Thelonious Monk, Oscar Pettiford (Riverside, 1955) With Jean-Christian Michel Sacred Music (Barclay, 1969) JQM (General Records, 1972) Ouverture spatiale (General, 1974) Eve des Origines (General, 1976) Port Maria (General, 1977) With Mark Murphy Midnight Mood (MPS, 1968) With Phineas Newborn Jr. Here Is Phineas (Atlantic, 1956) With Oscar Peterson Peterson/Grappelli (Prestige, 1974) With Bud Powell The Lonely One... (Verve, 1955) Bud in Paris (Xanadu, 1959–1960) The Essen Jazz Festival Concert (Black Lion, 1960) A Tribute to Cannonball (Columbia, 1961) A Portrait of Thelonious (Columbia, 1961) 'Round About Midnight at the Blue Note (Dreyfus, 1961–1962) With Rhoda Scott Rhoda Scott + Kenny Clarke (Barclay, 1977) With Sahib Shihab Summer Dawn (Argo, 1964) Seeds (Vogue Schallplatten, 1968) Companionship (Vogue Schallplatten, 1971) With Zoot Sims Lost Tapes Baden-Baden 1958 (SWR, 2014) With Idrees Sulieman Bird's Grass (SteepleChase, 1985) With Cal Tjader Cal Tjader: Vibist (Savoy, 1954) With Julius Watkins Julius Watkins Sextet (Blue Note, 1954) With Frank Wess North, South, East....Wess (Savoy, 1956) Opus in Swing (Savoy, 1956) With Joe Wilder Wilder 'n' Wilder (Savoy, 1956) With Ernie Wilkins Flutes & Reeds (Savoy, 1955) with Frank Wess Top Brass (Savoy, 1955)