Saturday, October 26, 2013

Mr. Kenyatta

     Just the other day I came across a Facebook posting of a friend who had a couple of pictures of pianist and soprano saxophonist Kamau Kenyatta. Kamau Kenyatta currently resides in San Diego, CA, but was once a major player on the Detroit jazz scene.

     I first met Kamau Kenyatta at his Wednesday night sets at Dummy George`s jazz club in Detroit in the 1980`s. He and his band hosted a Wednesday night jam session. His first set was closed to allow the audience to enjoy the music of Kamau Kenyatta, who was joined on stage with Rayse Biggs - trumpet, Vincent Bowens - tenor saxophone, Jaribu Shahid - bass, and Tanni Tabal - drums. Marion Hayden replaced Jaribu Shahid on bass.

     My good friend, and trumpeter Mark Croft and I would always attend those jam sessions at Dummy George`s. Those jam sessions were like a home coming; it was great to see all the musicians who attended the jam sessions, and to also hear them play. I really enjoyed that first set though, especially with Marion Hayden on bass (don`t get this wrong, I also enjoyed Jaribu Shahid). Kamau Kenyatta and his band treated the audience with a first set of energized post-bop and straight-a-head jazz that rivaled anything out of New York, or the most prestigious jazz festivals.

     Currently, Kamau Kenyatta lives in San Diego, CA, where he lectures at University of California`s Jazz Studies Department. Kamau Kenyatta has performed with Hubert Laws, Earl Klugh, and Patti Austin, just to name a few. Kenyatta has also written scores and supervised music for documentary and film. Detroit`s loss is San Diego`s gain. Thanks for those excellent first sets and jam sessions.

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